Venezuela quickly goes from ridiculous to grotesque as the deep crisis in which millions of Venezuelans live worsens.
One day, at a military parade to celebrate independence, an inflatable doll called “Super Mustache” replaced President Nicolás Maduro, who is absent from the most important public event on the patriotic calendar. The other day, the horrible crime of a Chavista leader was discovered who, after disappearing for two years, appears dismembered by his wife’s orders to avoid being accused of corruption.
But while this grotesque news spreads, leaving a large part of the population indifferent, the decline of the public health system affects the most vulnerable Venezuelans.
The disaster of the Venezuelan health system was highlighted in the compilation of the HumVenezuela platform and the National Research of Hospitals, civil society initiatives that seek to fill the information void left by the Maduro regime.
The Ministry of Health has not published the national epidemiological bulletin since May 2017, when the report for the last week of 2016 was released. At that time, the bulletin entered the media, revealing that the infant mortality rate had soared: 11,466 children died in 2016 , 30% more than in 2015. This cost the then health minister, Antonieta Caporale, her job. Since then, there are no official epidemiological data.
The drama at the children’s hospital
In two reports prepared by the non-governmental organization Prepara Família, the situation in the country’s main children’s hospital, the JM de los Ríos de Caracas, is documented. As evidence of the tragedy, one of the reports mentions the impact of the suspension of the organ transplant program from June 2017, which, according to the NGO’s estimates, affected around 1,500 people, including 150 children and adolescents who are still waiting for an organ to save their lives. Maduro himself announced in November 2021 that the national transplant program would be reactivated, but this did not happen.
The most illustrative case of this transplant crisis is that of the Nephrology Unit of the JM de los Ríos Hospital. Since 2017, 71 children and adolescents have died due to lack of antibiotics and problems with dialysis equipment. The National Nephrology Association estimates that since the transplant program was suspended, more than 70% of dialysis units are not functioning properly due to equipment malfunctions and lack of running drinking water, among other problems.
The hemodialysis unit at the national referral pediatric hospital is the only one in the country that can offer the service to children weighing less than 10 kg. Only half of the machines are working, according to the report. The hospital does not have a CT scanner or MRI equipment. The craniotome, an instrument for performing brain operations, does not work for lack of maintenance. The pediatric center has only one portable X-ray machine, which most of the time does not work. The laboratory does not have reagents, so patients and their families must turn to private laboratories. And the nephrology lab unit has been closed for five years.
Not even in the face of death, this hospital has adequate services. The poor conditions of the pathology unit do not allow adequate care of the corpses, particularly when several deaths occur in a short period. Families do not receive any support from the hospital administration or the government and rely on help from civil society organizations to cover funeral expenses.
The Covid pandemic made the situation worse. The country’s pediatric units, including the JM de los Ríos Hospital, gave priority to minors with symptoms, which had a negative impact on patients suffering from chronic illnesses, nephrological, hematological and cancer diseases.
The report also points out that 95% of those accompanying hospitalized children and adolescents are women, which demonstrates the enormous gender inequality. Care tasks are performed by mothers and other women who are family members or close to the patients who do not receive any type of support from the health services. Therefore, the report considers it important that this work be remunerated in order to support women and families from sectors that come from the poorest sectors of society.
Fundamental rights violated
The general context of health in Venezuela is one of continuous deterioration. In the midst of a pandemic, data coming from non-governmental organizations reveal chronic and aggravating problems. According to the most recent report by the National Hospital Survey of June 2022, the shortage rates of basic supplies are 47% in public hospital emergency rooms and 72% in operating rooms.
In turn, the HumVenezuela report, published in June 2021, states that with the pandemic, the number of Venezuelans who have lost health services, both in the public and private systems, has risen to 18.8 million. It also increased to more than nine in ten people who lack financial protection and to almost six in ten who did not have the financial resources to cover health care expenses. Public hospitals reported 82% inoperability to treat illnesses other than Covid-19, a situation exacerbated by the withdrawal of 58% to 70% of medical staff and 62% to 88% of nursing staff. Specialized health personnel emigrate like so many other millions of Venezuelans.
Prepara Família and other civil society organizations have repeatedly denounced this situation before international bodies, because the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office and the Ombudsman’s Office, the bodies that should ensure the defense of the rights of Venezuelans, have listened like a merchant to the petitions of those affected and of those who represent them.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has issued several precautionary measures to protect patients at the JM de los Río Children’s Hospital. And while the Maduro regime’s propaganda pretends that “Venezuela got it right,” children who die from lack of medical care sadly belie a slogan that sounds like an insult to their memory and the pain of their families.
