Colin Hughes, Apartaderos
The old man carries his X-ray across the brand spanking new clinic. He enters the specialists' room and is given the news he is to be flown to Cuba within five days for a life-saving operation.
Three days earlier, the family had finally persuaded him to accept a home visit from a Cuban doctor, one of 26,000 currently practising in Venezuela. Up until a few years ago, it was not worth visiting the doctor. You could not afford the medicine or the hospital. You either tried some herbal remedy or you died.
The family reminded their papa about how the Cuban doctor, only a few weeks after arriving in Apartaderos, had asked to examine his granddaughter on his home visit. He quickly arranged for X-rays and diagnosed the child's congenital dislocated hip. Four weeks later the granddaughter was having corrective surgery and splints in Cuba. This is medicine under President Hugo Chavez's new mission Barrio Adentro, a program to bring universal health care to the poor of Venezuela using Cuban doctors.
In this province there are 42 GPs and specialists. The specialists work from a new centre better equipped with X-ray, ultrasound, pathology and endoscopy than any multi-purpose centre in rural Western Australia. The four specialists provide 24-hour cover in a mini intensive care unit (ICU) to deal with problems like meningitis, pneumonia, toxic poisoning from the excessive use of organo-pesticides and heart attacks.
On recovery, the patient is transferred to a holding ward of five beds. The ICU is fitted with all the latest equipment and respirators courtesy of a deal with Cuba to provide medical care in exchange for oil. They also provide a full-time ophthalmologist who treats who he can and selects patients for the expected 16,000 operations in Cuba for Venezuelans (in addition to the 100,000 patients from Central America), including lens replacement for cataracts.
The Cuban GPs have about 3000 patients each and treat mainly parasites, lung disease, hypertension and diabetes. In the afternoons they do home visits to the isolated and infirm and practice a health promotion and disease prevention and detection strategy. All medicines are provided free, with drugs manufactured and supplied by Cuba. Chavez is moving to Missions 1 and 2, which will establish these diagnostic centres throughout Venezuela and improve hospital access to the poor.
Is this the new socialism that will attempt to heal the problems of Latin America? It certainly is inspirational stuff and has made a huge difference to the health of this community.
[Colin Hughes is a Western Australian-based doctor participating in the Australia-Venezuela solidarity brigade.]
From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
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