TN in Cuba: What is the health system of the country where Florencia Kirchner is treated?

Florencia Kirchner's defense presented a summary of her medical history in which she explained that the daughter of the former president was being treated in Cuba for post-traumatic stress disorder. In an outpatient setting, professionals from the famous Center for Research in Surgical Medicine (CIMEQ) are in charge of its treatment. In meanders with Justice for his date back in Argentina, a team of TN and eltrece traveled to the Caribbean country to show How access and quality of health services change if you are a foreign person with resources and power.

Iván García Quintero is a local journalist. Six months ago, he had to go to Calixto García hospital in Havana for severe abdominal pain. However, he knew that to be taken care of quickly by a specialist, he had to give something back.

"In Cuba, we have experience for the doctor to give you personalized treatment. They receive gifts. It can be a perfume, a ham blood-sang, a pork leg or cash, "he explained during a conversation with TN.

Quintero chose the latter option and paid eight dollars to speed up his consultation with a gastroenterologist. "Then they could do a checkup for me. With money, it flows"added the reporter.

In your case, it was an attention with a specialist. Others manage to obtain drugs "that do not normally exist" or anesthetics that are not in stock for painful procedures.

Cuban writer Jorge Olivera has done a radiograph of the health system and his results are not totally positive. "It's an idealized system around the world, it's not the worst, but does not have the excellence with which it is sold"he said.

As for Quintero's comments, the artist pointed out that they were created "huge networks of corruption" which also splash the public health apparatus.

Despite the fact that all Cubans can enter a hospital, Olivera pointed out that they were poor sanitary conditions and missing instruments and specialist doctors. As in the rooms, air conditioners can be damaged, relatives of hospital patients bring them standing fans. They also have food and even buckets of water.

A director of a public hospital, who preferred not to reveal his identity, spoke with the team sent by TN and eltrece and admitted that lacks "many things" in the public health system. "There are drugs that do not exist in the country because they can not be produced, there are diseases that can not be treated because we do not have the instruments," he said. In turn, he acknowledged that he could not show his face during the security interview. "In Cuba, we can not always tell the truth because we can misinterpret as an act of counter-revolution"

The story changes when the patient is a stranger with money and / or in contact with the government. As was the case with Florencia Kirchner. Cristina Kirchner's daughter is seen at CIMEQ, a first-level center where you can only enter people linked to political power.

"In this type of clinic there is everything, the service is of excellence, as if it was the first world. But here, only foreign personalities with affinities with our government or people with money much cheaper than in their country can be attended, "said the writer Olivera.