HAVANA, December 1 (Ricardo González Alfonso) – As 50 Venezuelan
patients arrived to be treated in Havana, the Oncological Hospital in the city
postponed all surgery for lack of water.
The Venezuelan patients are the first to arrive under the plan for
cooperation signed recently by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. Under the
plan, Venezuela will supply Cuba with approximately 53,000 barrels of oil a day,
which Cuba will pay for mostly in kind, by, among other means, taking Venezuelan
patients into Cuba’s health care system.
Some here expect the Venezuelans will be treated in hospitals designated for
foreigners, where medicines and supplies are widely available and which are not
subject to the vagaries of Cuba’s crumbling infrastructure.
It was imposible to ascertain by press time what had caused the pipes at the
Oncological Hospital to run dry. The hospital is only one facility in a medical
complex which includes Orthopedic, Pediatric, and Neurologic
Hospitals in the vicinity of the University of Havana. There was no word on
whether the other hospitals in the area were also subject to the water cut-off.
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