A Cuban doctor with multiple specialties and a teaching position has shared a heartfelt and poignant message on Facebook, explaining why she has not practiced medicine for nearly six months and has no plans to return anytime soon.
Liliana Isabel Salazar Villariño, an expert in Comprehensive General Medicine with a Diploma in Intensive and Emergency Medicine and a teaching rank of Instructor Professor, provided specific figures to justify her decision.
"Even with more than five on-call shifts a month, my salary never reached ten thousand pesos. It might sound like a lot, but when you head out to buy food, especially for your child, you hit a wall, and it hurts," she recounted.
As a single mother relocating to a new city, she was compelled to seek immediate employment outside the medical field. The transfer leave she requested is still pending due to bureaucratic delays.
Salazar Villariño outlined the exorbitant costs that make it impossible to make ends meet: a carton of eggs costs 3,000 pesos, powdered milk 2,700, a liter of oil 1,300, and a kilogram of rice 650.
"BAM, the salary is gone. Goodbye sugar, no salads, no fruits, no vegetables, I can't afford transportation, personal hygiene products, or cleaning supplies, I can't, I can't, I can't," she expressed.
The doctor described surviving the month with limited purchases and donations from friends and patients, "with a lump in her throat," while doing night shifts, assisting pregnant women, teaching students, and getting little sleep.
The irony she points out is stark: in the private sector, cleaning a house or working a shift as a clerk can earn more than 2,000 pesos in under eight hours, plus tips. "The private sector ensures you can eat, not your university degree," she noted.
Her situation is not unique. The average salary for health workers in Cuba was around 6,562 pesos as of November 2025, equivalent to about 16 dollars on the informal exchange market, while the cost of basic groceries for two people in Havana exceeded 41,000 pesos monthly.
In July 2025, the Health Minister himself acknowledged the collapse of the Cuban healthcare system, and by February 2026, the regime admitted it only covers 30% of the essential medication list.
Between 2021 and 2024, Cuba lost approximately 77,522 healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, technicians, and dentists. The number of doctors dropped from about 105,000 to 75,364, worsening the doctor-to-population ratio from 104 to 131.
This is not the first time a healthcare professional has made such a decision. A doctor with two specialties resigned from Calixto García Hospital in 2023 due to lack of supplies and insufficient wages, earning only 49 dollars monthly. More recently, another doctor depicted the reality of walking through a Cuban hospital, likening it to the capitalism that the regime criticizes so harshly.
Salazar Villariño concluded her post with a message to her patients: "That gives me a sense of what I was and what I am, even if I no longer wear the white coat."
Her account encapsulates the exhaustion of thousands of Cuban doctors who, as she herself wrote, "have quit not because they're not passionate about their profession, but because there's an emotional toll that shakes you."
Understanding the Crisis in Cuban Healthcare
Why did Liliana Isabel Salazar Villariño stop practicing medicine?
She stopped practicing because her salary, despite working multiple on-call shifts, was insufficient to cover basic living expenses and support her child.
What challenges do Cuban doctors face in the healthcare system?
Cuban doctors face low salaries, high living costs, and a collapsing healthcare system that lacks essential supplies and medications.
How does the private sector in Cuba compare to the healthcare sector in terms of wages?
In the private sector, jobs such as house cleaning or clerking can earn more than 2,000 pesos in less than eight hours, plus tips, which is more than what many doctors make with their salaries.