Supply shortages plague Venezuela's public hospitals

Abstract

Nursing assistant Marleni Acevedo reached into one of the nearly bare shelves in the nurses’ station and retrieved a half-litre cardboard carton of cotton balls. This is all the cotton we have for the 40-bed ward until new supplies arrive she says. That afternoon the nurses on duty in Magallanes public hospital in Caracas Venezuela had no alcohol and no running water. The refrigerator and intercom systems were out of order as were all but one of the building’s seven elevators. It was a typical day in Magallanes hospital—a faded red white and green ten-storey building with garbage piled up in front of it. Over the hills surrounding the hospital lies one of the many sprawling slums that swamp most of the city. In late August the 500-bed hospital made headlines when four patients died in one night after oxygen supplies ran out. The deaths drew attention to the fact that despite Venezuela’s unprecedented income from soaring world oil prices the country’s public health system is plagued with problems. While Magallanes has become a symbol of the health system’s shortcomings doctors patients and government officials agree that many of Venezuela’s 300 public hospitals share its problems. (excerpt)