By Vivian Sequera and Mircely Guanipa
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan nurse Flor Pérez works a turbulent night shift at a public children’s hospital in Caracas, where the coronavirus is a constant risk, in return she earns a monthly salary that allows her to buy a day’s worth of food .
Perez, 47, says that of the 8 nurses who must be on the night shift, 3 appear constantly. The rest left the country or took other jobs to make more money.
“The life of a user who graduated from a nursing school unfortunately hurts sometimes, because our salary (is) between 3 and one part and 4 dollars,” Perez said at his home on the outskirts of Caracas, as he prepared for a shift at JM hospital in los Ríos.
Pérez is one of more than 100,000 nurses in Venezuela struggling to make ends meet with salaries decimated by rising inflation, while also facing a greater threat of contracting the coronavirus in a country where doctors lack medical equipment. protection and even running water.
Between March and early September, at least 26 nurses died from COVID-19, to the non-profit organization Doctores Unidos Venezuela. The Nurses Association says that at least 4,000 have emigrated since 2016 due to the economic crisis.
There have been about 55,000 cases shown of coronavirus and 444 deaths in Venezuela so far, according to government figures, a low case burden compared to many of its South American neighbors. But the terrible scenario of his health professionals weakens his ability to cope with the pandemic.
The Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
President Nicolás Maduro says the country is taking care of its medical staff, thanks to donations from Russia and China. The donations helped Venezuela triumph over shortages induced by US sanctions aimed at removing it from power, the Socialist Party leader said.
The accusations critical of Venezuela’s hospital formula are opposition fabrications designed to tarnish Venezuela’s reputation.
SECONDARY WORK
Pérez says he cares for young people with pneumonia and, in some cases, suspected COVID-19 cases, but the hospital provides a face mask at the most productive time, and not even that.
“It is complicated for us because they are not our children, but we are suffering with them,” he said.
Venezuela is experiencing a six-year economic slump caused by a dysfunctional economic policy that has fueled hyperinflation and the migration of nearly five million citizens. These disorders have been accelerated through sanctions that restrict the country’s ability to import goods, adding fuel.
Vanessa Castro, 40, a nurse at a public hospital in the northern city of Maracay, has to paint in parallel at a fruit and vegetable market, providing hand gel, just to pay for her own food, but also to buy non-protective protectors. public. equipment.
“Before we did not have the threat of painting. We are also human beings and we have families: we are afraid. We do our paintings with dedication, but it is not easy.
She said she could generate more money in a personal clinic, but most of those jobs involve treating other people with coronavirus.
“(That’s) the last thing I’d like to do now,” said Castro, who is afraid to infect her husband and two daughters.
The hospital formula has been in continuous decline for years due to chronic water shortages, constant power outages and the loss of workers’ medical corps due to low wages.
Pérez’s husband Gregory worked as a motorcycle mechanic in Peru, but lost his job due to the pandemic, along with remittances of $8 to $12 sent to him.
Now he sells comfortable drinks at home to earn a little more money.
Perez doesn’t think he can decide to give up his homework at the hospital because young people are too close to his heart, but he’s worried about what the situation will be like.
“If COVID kills us, the economic scenario will be,” he says as he prepares his dinner that he will eat in the hospital: a part of avocado and a small corn pancake.
(Reporting via Vivian Sequera, additional reporting via Mircely Guanipa, editing via Rosalba O’Brien)