Outrage Over Unpaid Wages at Santiago de Cuba Hospital: "How Do We Buy Food for New Year's Eve?"

The staff at the Provincial Hospital in Santiago de Cuba is expressing deep frustration and anger, as the Cuban regime has yet to pay their November wages, even 12 days into December. This delay has left workers struggling to purchase food for the New Year's Eve celebrations, especially as the cost of basic goods continues to climb as the year-end approaches, exacerbating their dissatisfaction.

A doctor from the hospital reached out to CiberCuba's editorial team to highlight the issue, arguing that while their salaries barely cover basic monthly needs, their rights as workers have been seriously violated. "We've spent the month watching patients die due to a lack of medicines and supplies. It's increasingly difficult to make diagnoses because of the shortage of reagents. The food we receive is terrible, there are no conditions to carry out our shifts, and now, on top of all that, our salary is delayed," she stated.

She mentioned that they were told payments would be made starting on the 15th. The doctor also criticized the decision to hold a food sale at the hospital, knowing that employees had not yet been paid. "They sold pork at 690 pesos, a bit cheaper than street price, along with black beans at 350 and rice at 180. Very few people could buy anything. My husband, who is also a doctor, and I live off our salaries, and we didn't have money to purchase," she explained.

Social media often amplifies the struggles faced by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers whose salaries, although higher than the national average, are still inadequate to meet basic needs. In the past, being a doctor in Cuba was a revered profession, requiring significant effort for academic training, yet it was well-paid, and doctors were respected public figures.

Today, the reality for Cuban doctors is starkly different. Due to the regime's misguided economic policies, their salaries have become increasingly inadequate, leading many to leave their positions to emigrate or pursue different careers outside the healthcare sector. The repeated mistreatment experienced by Cuban doctors has caused many to doubt their dedication to the profession.

Recently, another doctor from Santiago de Cuba, after years of disillusionment, remarked, "Life in Cuba has become a survival race within the narrow confines of power outages, water shortages, scarcity, and inflation."