The history of the health system in the province of Pinar del Río since the Triumph of the Revolution in 1959, is full of transcendental events linked to the development of the territory of Vueltabajo, accompanying the political and administrative changes implemented in the country and particularly in the province itself.

In 1959 there was only private medical care concentrated in the provincial capital and in the headwaters of the territories, the relief houses, the infant care centers of the National Organization of Children's Dispensaries (ONDI), the private and mutual clinics and some centers where hospital care was provided.

It is undeniable that the strengthening of the provincial health system in Pinar del Río is closely related to the strategies of MINSAP and the policies of the Cuban state that originated in the postulates of the historical leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, in his defense "History will Absolve Me," which became programmatic documents that became a reality in 1959, and with these, a citizen's right of which he feels extraordinary pride.

Progressively these units were converted into the initial primary care centers, until the organization of the types of services and institutions with the creation of the National Health System in 1961, by unifying the forms of public and private health care integrated into a single central direction, MINSAP.

In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, numerous constructions of polyclinic centers and rural and municipal hospitals dedicated to primary care and hospitalization were undertaken, many of them from relief houses, ONDI children's dispensaries, former rural guard barracks and other public, private or health activity premises. This allowed the consolidation of the Provincial Health System, sealing the province with the offices of the family doctor and nurse, and at the secondary level, in addition to the extensions and modifications in hospitals, the Abel Santamaría Cuadrado General Hospital was built in 1988. In 2002, a program of expansion, remodeling and repair of all health units began. The current structure of the provincial system is as follows:

Current structure of the health system in the province:

Starting in 2014 with the second process of Deepening Necessary Transformations and Assisted Regionalization, the system is reorganized with the objective of increasing the quality of health services with greater effectiveness and establishes the community projection of the specialties in which 20 specialties reach the municipalities and 14 to all Polyclinics. Six hundred and twenty-six clinics are defined.

In this way, accessibility to health services has been guaranteed, as well as health care coverage with doctors and nurses in each clinic and a greater permanence of the same.

To find out about the development of scientific and technical information activities in the National Health System in our country, visit the Infomed Portal and specifically, in the case of our province, you can consult the Infomed Portal of Pinar del Río.