Chavez's socialist medicine dream may be liability

[naaman fletcher]

Near collapse, Herrera was punted from one institution to another until eventually ending up in the thoracic ward of a run-down public hospital three hours from his home. He adores Chavez but laments his inability to provide hospitals in his area with the equipment they need to treat pneumonia.

"They should have it too, so that some people don't have more than others, so that everyone is at the same level," he whispered from his bed in a spartan, eight-patient room.

While the president, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, is whisked away to Cuba for chemotherapy as a pampered guest of its revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, frustration at home is mounting over marathon waits at crumbling hospitals and shortages of basic medicines and supplies.

The "barrio adentro" program -- "within the neighborhood" in Spanish -- began in 2003 with an ambitious promise to grant free health care to the most needy. Initially, the government built small primary care modules in Caracas' many slums, staffed by Cuban doctors. The centers later mushroomed all across the country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/18/us-venezuela-health-idUSTRE77H0VW20110818

[Bacchus39]

1. the leader himself tells you what he thinks of Ven medicine when he travels to Cuba n/t

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