Health workers demand better salaries and better medical services

The economic crisis continues to deepen. Professionals from the health sector and patients from different hospitals in Anzoátegui, Aragua, Mérida and Nueva Esparta demand improvements for them and for the hundreds of patients who come to the health centers of those four states.

Health workers in the Anzoátegui state demanded the dollarization of their salaries since what they receive for their work is not enough to cover basic needs.

Meanwhile, 35% of the personnel of the University Hospital of the Andes heve resigned because of the precarious salaries they earn, the public transportation situation and the precarious conditions in which they must do their work, said Akbar Fuenmayor, head of the Control and Management Unit of the Autonomous Institute University Hospital of the Andes (IAHULA).

Fuenmayor confirmed that the loss of personnel and equipment has resulted in the closure of 18 health departments, while the rest remain halfway enabled.

Furthermore, María Gregoria Vega de Peña, Head of the IAHULA Nursing Department was emphatic in recognizing that the situation the country is going through is affecting them in every way, from the lack of money to pay the fare to get to the institutions and the absence of transportation to do it.

They denounce that the Popular Ministry for Health requires them to comply with a schedule that keeps nurses and doctors working 24 hours a day and seven days a week. However, salaries are insufficient to meet the day, as well as to attend to health centers daily.

In Vega’s opinion, if there is no flexibility, health personnel will abandon their positions in search of salary improvements in other institutions, leaving without attention the more than 400 patients who are treated daily. He also said they want to comply with patient care but do not have any supplies, some as basic as a catheter.

The salaries of nurses are not even 250 thousand bolivars. It all depends on the location of the care center, number of hours and guards. And like the rest of Venezuelans, these salaries are not enough to cover their basic needs.

Many of the health staff members have lost between 10 and 15 kilos, starving wages and working conditions keep them at risk because they do not have the necessary provision of implements and cleanliness conditions.

Despite the great deterioration of their shoes and uniforms, and the adverse conditions that they sort on a daily basis, many nurses persist in the care of patients in the main center of care of the state of Mérida.

In Aragua, there is a deficit of blood supply in all health centers

Carmelo Gallardo, director of the Blood Bank of the Central Hospital of Maracay, who was imprisoned for more than 80 days for protesting against the country’s situation, recently reported that he keeps an account platelet availability numbers and the deficit is worrying.

He informed that the various health centers depend on this blood bank and there are more and more needs in this area. He called on the population to go to the main health centers of the entity to donate blood to help save lives.

Health crisis in Nueva Esparta is complicated by lack of condoms

The president of the Society of Specialist Physicians of Nueva Esparta, Fairet Fermín, said that even though the Ministry of Health has kept hiding health statistics for about five years, the Pan American Health Organization included this entity as one of the states with the highest rates of early pregnancy.

He said the situation is complicated due to the absence of condoms and contraceptives, which helps increase these figures with all the consequences that malnutrition and lack of control of pregnant adolescents brings.

The leader of the Neo-Spartan medical guild pointed out that neonatal and infant mortality is also on the rise due to the crisis at the Margarita Central Hospital, the only referral center for parturients.

He said there are no minimum conditions to care for pregnant women and newborns, so they are always at risk.

Crisis en el sector salud golpea a una Venezuela que urge por un cambio. ¡A la dictadura no le importan los ciudadanos! pic.twitter.com/IHPjalUnqe

— Centro de Comunicación Nacional (@Presidencia_VE) August 17, 2019