Urbina warned that “hospitals have become human warehouses” due to the decrease in their capacities
The secretary of the National Academy of Medicine, Huniades Urbina, warned this Wednesday, May 4, that public health in Venezuela is ceasing to be public health and that it could be said that it is “almost private” because the relatives of the patients have to buy the 70% of the supplies they will need to be treated in health centers that depend on the State.
In an interview given to Globovision, Urbina commented that the current health situation in Venezuela is the worst recorded in 40 years and said that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a country must allocate at least 6% of its GDP in the system of health. However, he referred that in our nation the contribution is barely 1.5% and that it is “poorly invested.”
He stated that in some of the hospitals, although some modifications or repairs have been made in terms of infrastructure, they do not comply with the security measures in force in the country’s regulations, while highlighting that in the majority of health centers There are still unfinished jobs since the Plan Bolívar 2000 was executed.
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That, according to Urbina, has undermined the capacity of hospitals to care for patients by 40%. He said that much of the young population that works in the health sector feels intimidated by what is happening, coupled with low wages, and they decide to leave the country; which results in lack of staff.
He denounced that the Venezuelan authorities “criminalize the protest” because they persecute those who make alerts about how the situation is in a certain hospital, whether they are patients, workers and doctors who work in said health centers.
Huniades Urbina accused that they also suffer from a 60% deficit in supplies of any kind in at least 40 head hospitals that are included in the National Hospital Survey (ENH), while he said that in intensive care there are even more severe deficiencies. .
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He commented that there are failures in public services, lack of protective material for doctors, bad budgets, very low salaries, among other things that affect the health sector.
He acknowledged that in many health centers in the country patients are not received and are referred to other instances, but explained that since there is less capacity in the facilities to house those who seek help, it is better to attend to them, practice first aid and send them. “Hospitals have become human repositories,” she said.
He also regretted that there are no resources to treat “first world” pathologies such as cancer and other rare diseases, as well as stressing that many of the equipment available in the country do not work.
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