This represents one of Cuba's great ironies: it is awash with excellently trained doctors who, because of the US blockade, are without access to many of the medicines they need to do their jobs well. My informative BBC World Service podcast told me that many Cuban doctors are deployed overseas as well, with Cuba having more doctors in the field than the WHO - many in other parts of Latin America but also further afield in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Cuba's National Health system has been one of the great successes of the revolution, and statistics like life expectancy and infant mortality often rival those of Western countries, including the US. But despite this, people often don't have access to basic medicines, even things like ibuprofen and paracetamol.
Every pharmacy I saw across Cuba looked much like this one.
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