Venezuela Launches 732 New Public Health Works For 2009

Mérida, January 28, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com)– Costing BsF 1.7 billion ($US 790 million) the Venezuelan government anticipates inaugurating 732 projects this year as part of the Barrio Adentro III hospital upgrading program and an over all strengthening of the national system of public health.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela made the announcement on Monday on national radio, saying that 30 of the 732 public works would begin this Friday, including a modern emergency room in the University Clinic Hospital in Caracas, as part of Barrio Adentro III.

One hundred Barrio Adentro I (basic consultation centers) centers will also start functioning this Friday, bringing the total number of such centers to 3,105, together with 11 new Central Diagnostic Centers (CDI) where more in depth diagnosis and treatment is conducted, bringing the total number of CDIs to 476.

The Barrio Adentro III projects will focus on modernization of various aspects of public hospitals, including emergency rooms, intensive care, operating rooms, pathological anatomy, laboratories, and neonatology.

Seventeen new areas of maternity care will be put into effect using the latest technology, Chavez said.

Haitian doctors

Venezuela will also train Haitians as medical professionals through the Integral Community Medicine Program and the National Program for Training Educators, as part of a tri-lateral agreement between Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti.

“We’re responding to the request by the president of the Republic, Hugo Chavez, to establish strategic plans with the people of Haiti to support them in their objective of overcoming the deep economic and social crisis that they are going through, through the formation of human talent, with the aim of gradually resolving their structural problems that are noticeable in the high rates of mortality, illiteracy, and unemployment as a result of the privatization of health and education,” said Anny Perez, speaking on behalf  of the International Office of Cooperation section of the Higher Education ministry.

Venezuela will send a contingent of teachers to Haiti to begin the training of new doctors and teachers.  In March, a process of selecting 50 Haitians to benefit from scholarships in Venezuela, will also begin.

Chavez also said that the second group of general doctors, a total of 932, would graduate at the end of the week, an addition to the 968 doctors who graduated last year. The new Venezuelan doctors will work in the various stages of Barrio Adentro.