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Editorial Commentary
VenEconomy:
One failure after another
Hugo Chávez’ eight years in office have been marked by failure in nearly all spheres.
So far, many of those failures have gone unnoticed as they were hidden behind the government’s monumental spending, the manipulation (and absence) of official figures, the regime’s propaganda machine, and Chávez populist discourse.
One of this government’s biggest failures has been in public health.
Even though the public health system that Chávez inherited from the 4th Republic was somewhat deteriorated, it was still considered one of the best in the region. All the government had to do was to make an effort and invest resources to renew the infrastructure and fit it out with equipment and supplies.
But Chávez did none of those things. Instead of recovering the system, he destroyed what he inherited, and what is worse, as happened with the professionals and technicians of PDVSA, with his bad policies, he prompted the exodus of thousands of doctors and other medical professionals who had the experience and know-how to undertake the recovery of the health system.
The outcome of his bad policies has been failure in three major areas.
The first to be affected was the primary health care sector. On the one hand, the hospital system was left to its fate, as it was deprived of resources and maintenance, and, on the other, the outpatients network was dismantled in order to impose Barrio Adentro.
Barrio Adentro was intended to provide primary care, supposedly bringing it nearer to the people in the barrios or shanty areas. Unfortunately, this program was used for proselytizing purposes and for achieving ideological penetration in the population, which was why poorly prepared, obsolete Cuban doctors were put in charge.
Today Barrio Adentro is in a frank state of decline, with deteriorated infrastructure and without supplies, equipment or medical personnel, as many of the Cubans have fled, while the Venezuelan doctors have emigrated. Today, the results of Chávez’ term in office is a primary care system with collapsed hospitals without sufficient outpatient units or Barrio Adentro modules or medical personnel.
The second area where failure has wrought havoc at the expense of the population’s health has been disease prevention. This has resulted in the abandoning of vaccination programs, which have been spasmodic and incomplete, the absence of prevention policies, the lack of fumigation, and even the closing down of the Maternal-Infant Food Program (PAMI).
The third area that was abandoned to its fate was the potable water and sewage systems, garbage collection, and maintenance of public areas.
All these failures of the Chávez administration in the area of health has been translated into a) the collapse of the public health system, b) an increase in the mortality rate of mothers and infants; and c) an increase in diseases that had already been controlled, such as tuberculosis, dengue, mumps, measles, and even Chagas’ disease.
VenEconomy is a Venezuela's leading specialized publisher in the economic and financial area. VenEconomy's Points of View on the issues of the day, as seen by VenEconomy during the last week. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.
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Petroleumworld News 02/01/08
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