Cuba: Poor healthcare for the poor

HAVANA, May 11 (José Antonio Fornaris, Cuba-Verdad / www.cubanet.org) - A seven-year-old girl hurt her foot last Sunday and, after finding there was no suture material available to stitch her wound, her parents decided to make do at home.

Maybelis' parents first took her to the "Julián Grimau" polyclinic in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality of Havana. The doctor there told them she had no way to stitch her wound.

The parents then said they would go to the "Aballí" hospital, but the doctor told them not to bother; they had no suture materials either. She did know that at the "William Soler" hospital they had the necessary supplies, but the parents decided that was too far to go, and took Maybelis home.

Looks like you have to be rich or a foreigner to get decent healthcare in Cuba.