Barrio Adentro

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Barrio Adentro is a program of the Venezuelan government under Hugo Chávez , which aims to ensure basic medical care for the poorest people in Venezuela , especially in the barrios (slums).

Structure and purpose

A new three-tier health system is also intended to give residents of the poorest parts of the city permanent access to the health system. The lowest level is made up of almost 15,000 doctors who offer basic medical care in so-called health stations in the poor areas. More complicated cases are referred by the district doctors to the new people's clinics, and even more complex treatments to the polyclinics. Post-treatment is also carried out in the poor neighborhoods. However, the government-funded program relies on support from the local community centers organized by local authorities and volunteers. They plan the use of the doctors and bring the new offer closer to the population.

The “Barrio Adentro” project mainly involves Cuban doctors who have agreed to live in the slums for a certain period of time and treat the people. Several thousand Cuban doctors came from Cuba to Venezuela for the project. Medical technology is also procured centrally via Cuba. This is part of Cuban internationalism , which supports the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, and also part of the “Doctors for Oil” program, in which Cuba is supplied with Venezuelan oil in return for sending doctors.

Before that, there were two free health services. What is new about Barrio Adentro is that Cuban doctors are venturing to make house calls to crime-ridden boroughs as their wealthier local counterparts avoid these areas for fear of kidnapping and ransom.

Track record

Both sides have benefited from the program so far, as there has been a serious energy problem in Cuba, while doctors trained in large numbers in Cuba have been able to close the dramatic gap in medical care for the poor population in Venezuela. According to the German doctor Wolfram Metzger, 60 percent of the population were excluded from initial medical care before the program began. When the program started in 2003, only 50 doctors from Venezuela had signed up. In 2009, according to Prensa Latina, 1584 Venezuelan doctors and 12,581 doctors from Cuba were involved in the project. A total of 4500 centers for free first aid have been set up. However, according to a 2008 report published by the Latin American Institute for Social Research , far fewer people benefit from the mission than the government stated. While the government states that 70 percent of the poor will benefit from the program, even in their prime (2004) it was only 30 percent of the target group and in 2008 it was only 20 percent.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Germany Trade & Invest : The medical technology market in Venezuela (PDF; 1.1 MB) from May 5, 2009
  2. ^ Die Zeit : Mission Malzwhisky Edition 49/2006 of November 30, 2006
  3. ↑ Harald Neuber: Praise for Barrio Adentro. In: amerika21. April 29, 2009. Retrieved April 29, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Die Weltwoche / Alvaro Vargas Llosa: Ultimate Socialist Irony Edition 30/08 from July 23, 2008

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