According to a report from Cuban television news (TV), the Cuban government purchased a batch of ambulances through the importing company MCV Comercial, for a value of about four million dollars.
The Ministers of Public Health (Minsap), José Ángel Portal, and Transport (Mitrans), Eduardo Rodríguez, were present at the delivery of the 99 ambulances, 50 of them new. That is, the rest are used.
MCV Comercial will be responsible for the reception of the equipment and the services following its commissioning, they explained media state-owned.
Representatives from both ministries told the news program that this is a government program to progressively improve public health services, which are very deteriorated on the island.
They explained that the ambulances received are a first arrival in the country of medical emergency vehicles that, although they do not solve all the demands of the provinces, help reduce the deficit.
Ambulance Shortage in Cuba
Officials Portal and Rodríguez announced that the vehicles will be distributed among four and five for each province, as part of a program that will continue in the coming months.
The importer MCV Comercial will support the buying and selling operation and will ensure the maintenance of that fleet in the workshops they have in the territories, the press report indicated.
This year, in his annual reportThe Cuban Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, admitted that Cuba was facing a severe shortage of ambulances and that it had not been possible to renew or expand the existing fleet due to a lack of resources. He said they only received some donations from abroad.
Portal Miranda indicated that only 39.6% of the ambulances needed to attend to any health emergency are operational throughout the country. This represents a critical situation amid another shortage of medicines and basic supplies in Cuban hospitals.