Venezuela faces virus with rundown hospitals

COVID-19 patients and their relatives have shed light on the rundown conditions in which Venezuela's doctors and nurses are battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Elena Suazo, a kindergarten worker in the capital Caracas, wore protective medical clothing to go inside a local hospital where her father is being treated.

Suazo, 47, recognised that she herself ran the risk of infection if she entered the hospital's COVID-19 wing to bathe and feed her father.

But she said that was the only way to ensure her father got sufficient care, as hospitals in Caracas don't have enough staff.

"While he is alive it is already a victory and we have to thank God," she said.

Zulay Ramos, a recently discharged COVID-19 patient, spoke about the nine days she spent at another state-run medical facility, José Gregorio Hernandez Hospital, where conditions are far from ideal.

"I witnessed the death of a man who shouldn't have died because of negligence," she said.

Ramos showed off a towel, decorated with cartoon images of superheroes, on which she'd written the names of the doctors and nurses who helped her to recover.

Hospitals across the once wealthy South American nation lack enough doctors and nurses to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

Mass migration over the last two decades has taken with it thousands of trained healthcare workers. As a result, some hospital wings have closed while others keep operating but with high caseloads.

The shortage leaves families rushing to fill the void, feeding their loved ones, changing their bedsheets and bathing them, tasks that would normally fall on trained medical professionals.

In 2018, a survey from the Caracas Nurses College found that at least 6,000 nurses had abandoned Venezuela, and medical workers said that the number has only increased in the past two years.

Venezuelan healthcare workers said doctors at public hospitals earn less than $20 a month, and nurses bring home roughly $10, forcing them to moonlight in order to make ends meet.

Standing in sharp contrast is Ana Francisca Peréz de León II Hospital, a medical center treating COVID-19 patients in another tough neighborhood of Caracas called Petare.

It's also a state hospital and offers free COVID-19 care but under the auspices of the international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders in agreement with Venezuela's Health Ministry.

The hospital operates to international standards with running water and air conditioning. Similar clinics at this level are available only to the wealthy or those with high-end health insurance.

The wing is staffed with 120 doctors, nurses and technicians who care for 36 patients, including six in intensive care connected to respirators and under sedation.

Staff follow a rigorous protocol for protective clothing and hand washing, with attention given to taking off gear after each shift to avoid contamination.

Psychologists on staff call to update family members, who are not allowed into the tightly controlled wing.

Nancy Rodriguez, who's 76, relied on her daughter - who works for the mayor's office - to get her admitted to the Perez de Leon Hospital.

"She called her boss, and she brought me here," said Rodriguez, as she burst into tears.

Dr. Jeannette Padrón, the chief of intensive therapy, heads the unit and says demand for COVID-19 care shows no sign of slowing in Venezuela.

"The health system in Venezuela was very run down, even prior to COVID-19. Every doctor knows what is already known, this is a matter about resources, about health and sanitary conditions, even within hospitals," she said.

At another hospital west of the capital called Oncology Institute Luis Razetti, oncology patients wait in halls with broken walls and dirty floors, among old machines that have been standing there for decades as if they were items from a museum.

Every day, a hospital worker has to carry a big bucket of water collected out of a damaged air conditioner.

Officials in Venezuela report roughly 750 deaths from coronavirus among more than 85,000 cases throughout the country. That's likely a gross undercount, as many people, fearful of the broken healthcare system, choose rather to stay home.

Some 220 Venezuelan doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have died from the coronavirus.