At present, there is a shortage of 80% of reagents used in specialized tests such as thyroid hormones, prostate antigen or tumor markers for those who had cancer. The costs of routine prostate antigen testing to rule out prostate cancer in men aged 50 and above will increase from USD 1,182 to USD 5,902. Due to excessive costs, many Venezuelans would not go for preventative tests.

Ideally, every year Venezuelans need to have tests that costs between USD 1,182 and USD 2,939. The coagulation tests that must be performed for any patient undergoing surgery are not free in hospitals and in the private sector the minimum cost is USD 2,939. The union of bioanalysts stated that due to rising costs rigorous analysis required for identifying contagion of diseases in blood supplied for transfusions are neglected.

Analysis of samples of blood transfusions done in the last year reflected that the number of samples contaminated with HIV, Chagas, hepatitis or syphilis remains the same. The Municipal Bank of Blood of the Capital District, which is responsible for carrying out tests of blood samples coming from various hospitals has a limited supply of reagents. In these hospitals, they are making use of these reagents such that they are being used only for the important cases, in the intention that reagents will last longer.

El-nacional

For the survey 23 hospitals in the capital of each state, university hospitals, 371 public and private hospitals, 92 hospitals Type II, Type III, Type IV (large hospitals) were considered. Around 97% of the country’s public health laboratories had shortage of reagents to perform the medical tests. This implies that patients were forced to go private laboratories to perform their medical tests.

Out of pocket pay decreased from 81% in 2016 to 75% in 2017. Around 64% of the pediatric wards in the hospitals had shortage of milk formulas while the same percentage of kitchens of public hospitals were not operational because of no food supplies.

The survey also revealed that 89% of X-ray equipment is either non-operational or intermittent, 71% of hospitals do not have working ultrasound equipment and 94% of CT scans are not functional.

On the contrary, private sector hospitals have 100% of beds and operating rooms in working condition. The private sector treats 55% of Venezuelans. The country has been experiencing medicine shortage for over two years. Physicians and representatives of the public health sector have repeatedly condemned the infrastructure conditions of hospitals, the lack of medicines, as well as the shortage of medical supplies.