MARACAY, Venezuela (AP) — Evelina Gonzalez was supposed to undergo cancer surgery in July following chemotherapy but wound up shuttling from hospital to hospital in search of an available operating table. On the crest of her left breast, a mocha-colored tumor doubled in size and now bulges through her white spandex tank top.

Gonzalez is on a list of 31 breast cancer patients waiting to have tumors removed at one of Venezuela's biggest medical facilities, Maracay's Central Hospital. But like legions of the sick across the country, she's been neglected by a health care system doctors say is collapsing after years of deterioration.


Doctors at the hospital sent home 300 cancer patients last month when supply shortages and overtaxed equipment made it impossible for them to perform non-emergency surgeries. Driving the crisis in health care are the same forces that have left Venezuelans scrambling to find toilet paper, milk and automobile parts. Economists blame government mismanagement and currency controls set by the late President Hugo Chavez for inflation pushing 50 percent annually. The government controls the dollars needed to buy medical supplies and has simply not made enough available.


The country's 1999 constitution guarantees free universal health care to Venezuelans, who sit on the world's largest proven oil reserves. Maduro's government insists it's complying. Yet of the country's 100 fully functioning public hospitals, nine in 10 have just 7 percent of the supplies they need, Natera said.

The other nearly 200 public hospitals that existed when Chavez took office were largely replaced by a system of walk-in clinics run by Cuban doctors that have won praise for delivering preventative care to the neediest but do not treat serious illnesses.

The private system has just 8,000 of the country's more than 50,000 hospital beds but treats 53 percent of the country's patients, including the 10 million public employees with health insurance. Rosales said insurers, many state-owned, are four to six months behind in payments and it is nearly impossible to meet payrolls and pay suppliers.

The last pre-Chavez health minister, Dr. Jose Felix Oletta, said that while the public health care system had its problems, the Cuban-run program of 1,200 clinics is a politically motivated waste of billions.

I wonder if they were told "if you like your doctor, you can keep him.
Or, "if you like your insurance that you have now, you can keep it"

No wonder Chavez went to a Cuban Hospital. Where only the elite in Cuba get adequate care.

I think we now know why Venezuela's health care is collapsing.

The "liberal" socialists can't be allowed to have better health care than the corporatist/Stalinist "socialists" (such as the more recent US administrations).

Decent health care creates an example (of the duty to care) that sticks in the craw of the (has-been, crooked) rulers who would rather rob & kill the people than help them.

This should count for something:"Time Mag names Hugo Chavez world's sexiest corpse"!

A little radioactive polonium cures a lot of ailments.

So who did you assassinate with it; Arafat, Chavez or both of them?

Meanwhile, the poverty rate dropped by 20% in Venezuela last year – almost certainly the largest decline in poverty in the Americas for 2012, and one of the largest – if not the largest – in the world. The numbers are available on the website of the World Bank, but almost no journalists have made the arduous journey through cyberspace to find and report them. Ask them why they missed it.
© 2013 Guardian News and Media
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/07-8

Propaganda comrade.

Follow the arduous journey through cyberspace to this link http://www.worldbank.org/ not propaganda just the facts.


Next

Malarkey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Triple-Malarkey,even!
But what can you expect from a Country where the Top-Brass doesn't trust it's own Healthcare?

Go look for yourself. Facts are facts.

Man,you dreaming again!

Dreaming about reality? Frankly, I haven't looked at the report yet. Maybe we should ask Karen Hudes about it. She worked at the World Bank for 20 years, and even though she doesn't work for it anymore, she'd probably be able to tell you where to find the alleged report.

http://kahudes.net/

well,what do you expect?
They invented Obozocare!

The poverty rate dropped only 20%? If that's true.
Venezuela is an oil rich country with many natural resources. There should be zero poverty there.