THE APEX TIMES
A cancer patient in Havana’s orbit says she has been unable to obtain a CT scan for months because the only machine at the country’s leading hospital is broken, underscoring how fuel and parts shortages are rippling through medical services.
BATABANO, Cuba, July 2, 2026 (AP) - After years of cancer treatment that included two surgeries and multiple rounds of radiation therapy, 34-year-old Irisleydis Tristá says she has spent the past seven months without a crucial CT scan to see whether her tumor has grown or spread, a delay she links to equipment failures at Havana’s Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital.
Tristá, who lives about 70 kilometers south of Havana and is the mother of a 13-year-old, told reporters that the CT scanner at the hospital has been broken. She said her doctors told her they could not operate again because of a lack of resources, leaving her without a way to determine her condition. “I feel like my life is in danger,” Tristá said. “I don’t know if it has grown. We have no way of knowing.”
The case is one example of what analysts say is a sharp deterioration in Cuba’s once-universal, free healthcare system. The strain has intensified alongside Cuba’s wider economic crisis, which has included worsening energy constraints, supply interruptions, and shortages of medical inputs.
Hospitals across the island face shortages of basic supplies and medicines, including syringes, gauze, vaccines, and anesthetics, according to the reporting. Facilities also reportedly lack spare parts needed to repair critical equipment such as hemodialysis machines and CT scan systems, contributing to gaps in diagnostics and treatment that can affect patient outcomes.
The reporting attributes part of the worsening crisis to fuel shortages linked by analysts to U.S. sanctions that they say have tightened access to energy for the island. In parallel, the Trump administration has been pressing Cuba’s socialist government to pursue major economic reforms and change its governance approach in exchange for sanctions relief, according to the article’s description of the U.S. posture.
Beyond medical machinery, patients also face nonmedical obstacles that can interfere with treatment plans. Tristá said food shortages have made it difficult to follow the diet prescribed by her doctors, adding another layer of strain for families trying to support long-term cancer care amid broader shortages.
The accounts come as Cuba continues to rely heavily on domestic capacity for healthcare services. With diagnostic delays and equipment downtime reported at major facilities, patients who require ongoing monitoring may face additional time without imaging or specialist interventions, while caregivers weigh treatment options inside a system experiencing what the reporting describes as deepening constraints.
U.S. and Cuban officials have not been detailed in the reporting on whether specific CT scanner repairs or new equipment procurement are underway at Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital. For patients like Tristá, the immediate next step remains access to imaging and clinical decisions about whether additional interventions are possible, depending on what resources can be restored in the coming months.
