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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Health & Science

Venezuelan doctors treat earthquake victims while earning less than a dollar a month

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Doctors and nurses in Venezuela's public hospitals are treating earthquake victims despite earning less than a dollar a month.
  • Medical staff report that their salaries are insufficient even for transportation to work, forcing them to pay out-of-pocket.
  • The Pérez Carreño Hospital, a major facility, is severely under-equipped, lacking basic laboratory services and functioning imaging equipment, despite its designation as a high-specialty center.

Doctors and nurses in Venezuela's public hospitals are facing dire conditions, treating victims of a recent double earthquake despite earning meager salaries that amount to less than one US dollar per month. At least five individuals confirmed to Efe that their base pay is insufficient even to cover transportation costs to their workplaces.

They can deposit (the salary) to me, and I won't even notice. What I can tell you is that it's not even enough for transportation. We pay to go to work.

— a pediatrician at the Hospital Miguel Pérez CarreñoDescribing the inadequacy of medical staff salaries in Venezuela.

"They can deposit (the salary) to me, and I won't even notice. What I can tell you is that it's not even enough for transportation. We pay to go to work," said a pediatrician at the Hospital Miguel Pérez Carreño in western Caracas, speaking anonymously. Medical professionals often supplement their income by working in the private sector, viewing their public hospital work as a matter of vocation.

The Pérez Carreño Hospital, designated as a type four center for high specialization and technology, was already struggling with limited capacity before the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes. The facility lacks essential services like a functioning laboratory and bacteriology department, and its imaging service was only recently reactivated. This is despite its historical significance as the first hospital in Venezuela to perform a heart transplant in 1987.

The hospital always has been very poorly equipped. It is a type four hospital, but it has no laboratory, no bacteriology. The imaging service was activated very recently. We are talking about a hospital that should solve everything.

— a pediatrician at the Hospital Miguel Pérez CarreñoDetailing the poor state of the Hospital Miguel Pérez Carreño.

The emergency response to the earthquakes has been criticized as tardy, leading to a high number of amputations among the injured. The pediatrician reported that approximately 60% of patients treated since the earthquakes have required amputations, with at least 30 children among those affected. Healthcare workers are also experiencing extreme fatigue, with some working 16-hour shifts daily since the disaster began. Nurses have extended their shifts to 24 hours in some cases.

We have received patients in very bad condition. So bad condition that many have ended up with some amputation. At least 60% are amputees. We have at least 30 patients (children) since Wednesday.

— a pediatricianDescribing the severity of injuries and the high rate of amputations among earthquake victims.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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