Popular Havana “Pain Clinic” Closed

Popular Havana "Pain Clinic" Closed
July 14, 2014
Luis Rondon Paz

HAVANA TIMES — On June 30th, the Traditional and Asian Comprehensive
Medical Clinic (CIMTAN), popularly known as the "pain clinic", located
in the town of Santiago de las Vegas, in Havana's municipality of
Boyeros, was shut down despite the efforts of workers and uncertainty
for patients around the town.

Days before the clinic was closed, I paid the institution a visit to get
to know what was happening first hand and to find out why high public
health authorities had decided to close a center that offers medical
services which do not entail significant State spending (most of them
being based on natural and traditional medicine).

When I arrived at the clinic, I introduced myself at the reception and
asked about the bad news. With an angry look on her face, the
receptionist informed me the decision had been handed down by the
Provincial Public Health Office. I then approached a number of patients.
They were disconcerted; for they didn't know where they could go after
the clinic was shut down.

"I'm in treatment, there's still a month left and no one's informed me
where I should go to continue my therapy," said an elderly woman who was
sitting outside the reception, waiting for her turn.

The discomfort was apparently common to patients and employees. When I
asked the receptionist if I could speak with the director of the clinic
in order to obtain more information about the decision, I was denied
permission. She said that the management was not authorized to give me
that information.

"Is what's happening here a State secret?" I asked. "If not, then,
explain this to me."

Minutes later, I met Dr. Nelson Garcia Rodriguez, the Municipal Public
Health Coordinator. He briefly explained the situation to me. "The story
behind the clinic being shut down dates back to 2010. The program
failed," he said to me.

He went on to describe, in his own words, the role played by natural and
traditional medicine practitioners in family clinics and polyclinics.
Since there was a shortage of personnel at the time, these were assigned
to other areas unrelated to their profession. This left patients
receiving this kind of medical attention without treatment. According to
him, this problem has not yet been overcome. He expounded on this on
November 11, 2010, in a "report" where he made recommendations about
natural and traditional health services in the municipality of Boyeros.
He added that, today, they face the same problem they did 4 years ago.

I decided to look into what opinion people had of these services at the
Santiago de las Vegas polyclinic and the Public Health Workers Union in
the municipality of Rancho Boyeros. When I got in touch with Ramon
Rivas, Head of Population Services, he told me to phone the Municipal
Health Office in Fontanar, where they could offer me more information on
this matter. He told me he was being bombarded with complaints by
workers of CIMTAN and people who were receiving treatment there.

Before calling the Provincial Health Office, I called the municipal
health workers union and was informed that "the measure was taken at
management level and the union had no authority to intervene before a
decision of that nature." They suggested I call the Municipal Health
Office, which is what I did when I hung up. Unfortunately, no one picked
up at the number they gave me, so I decided to call someone higher up to
see if I got an answer different than the one given me by the director
of CIMTAN.

After calling several offices of the National Public Health office, I
was redirected to the Population Services Department, where they noted
"my concerns." They said goodbye promising to "convey my comments to the
responsible entity."

Two hours later, I again gathered up the courage to call the Municipal
Health Office. I got someone on the phone this time around. I asked my
questions about the "pain clinic" over the phone. Judging from the tone
of the woman's voice, she was not too pleased to talk about this, for
all of her answers repeated the argument that "the closure of the clinic
had to do with the restructuring of Public Health institutions,
undertaken as per the Party Guidelines." She hung up without giving me
another explanation.

The following day, I talked to delegate Jaime Antonio Toledo and found
out that, on March 17, Dr. Nelson Garcia had sent a letter to the
Population Services Office of the Council of State, the Boyeros
Municipal Health Office, the Ministry of Public Health, the Provincial
Public Health Office, the Boyeros People's Power Bureau and the Boyeros
branch of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), hoping they would address
CIMTAN's problems, as per the right granted its employees by Article 63
of the Constitution.

A month later, he had only gotten a reply from the Provincial Health
Office, through an official responsible for natural and traditional
medical services in the province. According to Nelson, before the union
of the institution, the chair of the People's Council, Noel Perdigon,
delegate Jaime Antonio Toledo and the clinic's director, Dr. Maria
Asuncion Tosar, they were led to believe that the clinic would not be
completely shut down. Some delegates there even calmed people down
saying the clinic would not disappear.

"We've been lied to," Jaime remarked. "The employees of CIMTAN and the
town residents were told they were not going to shut down the clinic,
and they did precisely that!"

According to data provided by Jaime, in its 17 years of operations,
CIMTAN treated a total of 306,766 patients. In 2013, it treated a total
of 24,820 patients, administering a total of 96,284 treatments (2,281
patients per month, 570 per week and 102 per day).

The clinic offered courses to dentists, medical doctors and nurses and
private training courses for foreigners.

On June 18, in protest over the closure of the clinic, Nelson sent out a
letter titled "Yes to restructuring, no to closure." It was addressed to
the Municipal Health Office, with a copy sent to the Canal Habana TV
station, the Ministry of Public Health, the Boyeros Municipal Health
Union, the Boyeros branch of the PCC, the Boyeros People's Power Office
and the Council of State. He has yet to receive a reply from these
institutions.

Source: Popular Havana "Pain Clinic" Closed - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=104862