Judith León: 90% of public laboratories are “inoperative” | via: Radio fe y alegria
Oscar Acuña Arteaga | Venezuela | June 16, 2023 | Image: Courtesy Tal Cual
Unofficial translation made by HumVenezuela…
The president of the Venezuelan Federation of Professional Associations, Judith León, pointed out that according to a recent study, 90% of the country’s public laboratories are “inoperative”.
The Bionalist said that in only 10 % of the laboratories located in public health centers, the patient can undergo some kind of test.
“Most of them lack supplies, materials, reagents; to the list are added the working conditions and the low salaries paid to the professionals”, she said in the program En Este País of Radio Fe y Alegría Noticias.
The crisis has reached the blood banks
In relation to blood banks, the specialist commented that since 2018 they have made several pronouncements to denounce the conditions of these spaces.
He added that in 2016 in Venezuela there were 106 blood banks in operation, while currently there are barely 58.
But in 2014, the 217 hospitals attached to the Ministry of Health had their respective blood banks and availability to perform free serology.
“The situation in the blood banks is critical due to the same problems: staffing, migration of personnel due to low salaries and poor conditions of the structure,” she said.
In this sense, the president of the Federation of the Venezuelan Professional Associations lamented that more than 60% of the professional staff of the public institutions have left the country, as a consequence of the economic situation faced by the nation.