HAVANA (AP) — Cuba is reporting a reduction in the number of medical facilities, including 54 hospitals that closed last year as the country reorganizes its health care sector.
The National Office of Statistics says medical installations fell from 13,203 in 2010 to 12,738 last year.
The reductions include everything from general hospitals to family clinics, the small medical outposts that are ubiquitous across the island.
Cuba is proud of the universal, free health system installed after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, but his younger brother and successor Raul Castro has stressed that medical care must be more efficient and eliminate waste.
Health care budgets have been shrinking in recent years.
The statistics were posted recently on the website of the Statistics Office.
