At least 233 people died between 2019 and 2021 in hospitals in Venezuela due to electrical failures that are constantly recorded in the country, according to a specialized study released on Wednesday (03.30.2022).
“For the year 2019, the total deaths attributable to power outages in Venezuela was 17 people. For 2020, it was 75 and for the end of 2021 it was 141,” revealed the National Hospital Survey (EHN), which has the endorsement of the National Academy of Medicine, as well as opposition sectors.
The survey, in which doctors from the main hospitals in the country participated, was created in 2014 to denounce deficiencies in the public health systemdrowned in shortage of medicines and supplies, water and electricity cuts, and a precarious infrastructure.
Those responsible fore the survey, grouped in the NGO Doctors for Health, they began to measure the deaths that could be attributed to power outages after the massive blackout of 2019, which lasted for four days.
The report explains that there were “patients who died because they needed mechanical ventilation or had to enter the emergency operating room and they couldn’t move them inside the hospital because there was no elevator to do it.”
It also details that the increase in deaths in 2021 could be related to the COVID-19 pandemic.. “Since this is a disease with respiratory involvement, patients who presented more severe conditions needed constant mechanical ventilation for many days. The fluctuation of energy obviously has consequences in these cases.”
Venezuela has been experiencing constant power outages for more than a decadewhich the government of President Nicolás Maduro normally attributes to sabotage and “terrorist acts”, as well as to the international sanctions that unsuccessfully sought his removal from power.
However, experts agree that both the electricity crisis and the hospital crisis respond to years of disinvestment.
At least 233 people died between 2019 and 2021 in hospitals in Venezuela due to electrical failures that are constantly recorded in the country, according to a specialized study released on Wednesday (03.30.2022).
“For the year 2019, the total deaths attributable to power outages in Venezuela was 17 people. For 2020, it was 75 and for the end of 2021 it was 141,” revealed the National Hospital Survey (EHN), which has the endorsement of the National Academy of Medicine, as well as opposition sectors.
The survey, in which doctors from the main hospitals in the country participated, was created in 2014 to denounce deficiencies in the public health systemdrowned in shortage of medicines and supplies, water and electricity cuts, and a precarious infrastructure.
Those responsible fore the survey, grouped in the NGO Doctors for Health, they began to measure the deaths that could be attributed to power outages after the massive blackout of 2019, which lasted for four days.
The report explains that there were “patients who died because they needed mechanical ventilation or had to enter the emergency operating room and they couldn’t move them inside the hospital because there was no elevator to do it.”
It also details that the increase in deaths in 2021 could be related to the COVID-19 pandemic.. “Since this is a disease with respiratory involvement, patients who presented more severe conditions needed constant mechanical ventilation for many days. The fluctuation of energy obviously has consequences in these cases.”
Venezuela has been experiencing constant power outages for more than a decadewhich the government of President Nicolás Maduro normally attributes to sabotage and “terrorist acts”, as well as to the international sanctions that unsuccessfully sought his removal from power.
However, experts agree that both the electricity crisis and the hospital crisis respond to years of disinvestment.
;
