82% of Venezuelans Use Public Health System

Mérida, June 8th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - According to a National Statistics Institute (INE) study, 81.8% of Venezuelans, or 22 million people, are using the public health system, and of these 75.4% said they were satisfied with the service.

Elias Eljuri, president of the INE, said this morning that 93.5% of Venezuelans use the Barrio Adentro system, and 71% use the public hospitals. Barrio Adentro is a system of free community based health consultation made possible by an agreement between Venezuela and Cuba, and which involves a large proportion of Cuban doctors.

Of the 18.2% of Venezuelans interviewed who use the private system, 92.3% said they were satisfied.

Aldo Muñoz, the Cuban vice minister for health, said there are currently 6,571 popular consultation clinics in the Barrio Adentro program, and that the system, since its formal start in April 2003, has saved over 1 million lives and is teaching 24,000 Venezuelan students in integral community medicine.

In other health news, the Venezuelan minister for health, Jesus Mantilla, confirmed yesterday that there are 12 cases of flu virus A H1N1, also known as Swine Flu, in Venezuela. Of 329 people who were examined for the virus, 12 had positive results, 10 continue to be studied and the rest were negative.

Mantilla said there were epidemiology teams deployed in all airports, questioning any people who arrive who have the relevant symptoms, and stressed that the government had all the necessary resources for those diagnosed with the virus. He emphasised that the ministry "defends the health of all Venezuelans, regardless of type," because the virus is something affecting not just the poor sectors of the population but those with the ability to travel.

Published on Jun 8th 2009 at 6.49pm