[NYTr] Chavez Announces Construction of 15 New Hospitals in Venezuela

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Venezuelanalysis.com - July 26, 2007
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2364

Chavez Announces Construction of 15 New Hospitals in Venezuela

By Chris Carlson

Mérida ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the construction of
15 new hospitals across the country at an event in Caracas yesterday.
The new hospitals, along with the remodeling of existing hospitals,
make up the third and fourth phases of the Barrio Adentro (Inside the
Barrio) health program. The Chavez government?s social programs, such
as Barrio Adentro, have benefited nearly 50 percent of Venezuelan
households according to a recent survey.

Chavez announced the new hospitals yesterday at the inauguration of the
remodeled and reequipped Pérez Carreño hospital in Caracas. The 15 new
hospitals will be general care hospitals, but each will have a
specialization, according to Chavez. The president gave as examples the
hospital to be built in El Vigia, in the state of Merida, which will
specialize in Gastroenterology, and the hospital in Guarenas, in the
state of Miranda, which will specialize in cancer treatment. Hospitals
will also be built in the states of Barinas, Apure, Anzoátegui,
Cojedes, Aragua, Carabobo, Guarico, and Bolivar.

As a part of the Barrio Adentro health program, these new hospitals
make up the fourth phase of the health program consisting of building
specialized hospitals. The third phase, launched in 2006, is the
upgrading and remodeling of existing hospitals such as the Pérez
Carreño hospital that Chavez inaugurated yesterday. These hospitals
receive improvements in their infrastructure as well as new medical
equipment and facilities.

"We have seen equipment that did not exist in Venezuela before, now for
the service of all Venezuelans," said Chavez yesterday at the Pérez
Carreño hospital. "Some of them have been installed and operated for
the first time. This, combined with high quality medical personnel, is
the perfect combination of man and machine."

The Pérez Carreño hospital was equipped with a new emergency room with
capacity to treat 66 patients simultaneously, two operating rooms, and
two recovery rooms, as well as a variety of state-of-the-art
technology. Chavez commented that this model emergency room is "number
one, not only in Venezuela, but on this continent. It would be
difficult to find an emergency service as good as this one."

This is the beginning of the third phase of Barrio Adentro, according
to Chavez, and he said he hopes to see "all the hospitals in the
country as good as [the] Pérez Carreño [hospital]."

According to Health Minister Jesus Mantilla, the Venezuelan government
has approved a total of Bs. 1,355 billion (US$ 631 million) for the
remodeling and upgrading of 62 public hospitals across the country. The
minister said that more hospitals will be incorporated into the project
as the program advances.

"All of the people need preventative, healing, quality care that is
efficient and free," said Chavez. "This is a truly revolutionary
concept."

The social programs of the Chavez' government that include health,
nutrition, and education programs have reached 47.7 percent of
Venezuelan homes according to a recent survey by the Central Bank of
Venezuela (BCV). The study showed that 62.3 percent of low-income homes
benefit from the programs, while only 22 percent of middle class homes
have been reached. The study also showed that general well-being among
the Venezuelan population had improved from 1997 to 2005. Inequality,
however, had slightly increased from 2000 to 2005.

Chavez assured yesterday that these results were evidence that
Venezuela is "winning the battle against capitalism." He also cited
results of a recent survey that showed he enjoys the support of 70
percent of the population.

"Imagine if we could increase the efficiency in the general management
of the government," said Chavez. "If we could do a better follow up on
things, if we were more efficient, our support would get as high as 90
percent."

Chavez also cited results that show that 35 percent of Venezuelans say
they prefer a socialist system, while 40 percent support a social
democracy, and only 5 percent prefer a capitalist system.

But Chavez claimed that the survey was poorly designed since it asked
the question as if socialism was different from democracy.

"The new socialism isn't the dictatorship of the proletariat," he said.
"It's democracy."