Putting on a Clinic Clinic

Universalizing health care in Cuba has meant shifting the focus from major overcrowded hospitals to smaller decentralized polyclinics. Each neighborhood has a clinic in which residents can just drop in to have their health checked out. This medical system emphasizes preventative care.

Clinics are so readily accessible and close to home that people feel comfortable visiting the clinic regularly. Instead of waiting until an ailment causes a severe crisis, people can nip health problems in the bud by seeking medical attention early on. Even if the expansive network of clinics means more immediate resource allocation, preempting catastrophic conditions is much cheaper in the long run.

Each polyclinic serves an average population of twenty-two thousand people. Doctors become familiar with their neighbor-patients to whom they provide regular check-ups. If they detect more serious symptoms, they refer patients to specialists at larger regional hospitals.

People will stop in to polyclinics at a moments notice. Walking back home from a game of dominoes in the darkness of early night, a middle-aged Cuban man will suddenly come to a halt and tell his friend to wait a moment while he goes in to see if the doctor can check his blood pressure. If the doctor is available, great; if not, the man can revisit the clinic another time since it is only a few blocks from his house.

This method of frequent contact keeps both patient and doctor abreast of the citizen's condition.

The polyclinics endeavor to be ever to deal with drop-in patients. Even political bigwigs can pop in without any notice for a check-up--of the state of the system.