Heartbreaking pictures of tiny babies left sleeping in cardboard boxes in hospitals in Venezuela believed to have been taken by a medical staff who wanted to remain anonymous has caused an outrage after they were posted online to show the desperate situation in the South American country. Experts say hospitals in the country are being starved of resources due to the economic situation.  This development led to a group of medical professionals going to the National Parliament in June to talk about the shortage of medicine in the country with Cristian Pino, a doctor and the director of the University Hospital of Los Andes, in the state of Merida, emphasising the need for them to leave their difference to work together for the Venezuelan people to President Nicolas Maduro
Due to the economic crisis in Venezuela, doctors in the Domingo Guzman Lander hospital in Barcelona, in the north-eastern state of Anzoategui have been compelled to use cardboard boxes instead of incubators to keep newborn babies report the Dailymail.
Douglas Leon, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation (FMV), claims some of the hospitals are working with only 5% of the medical equipment they need.
According to the Pharmaceutical Federation, the shortage of medicines is more than 80 percent and around 13,000 doctors, which is more than 20 percent of the medical staff in the country, have emigrated in the last four years because of the crisis in their sector and because of low salaries.
Carlos Rotondaro, the country’s director of social security, reacted angrily to the images, by commenting on social media site Twitter: ‘We do not prove the actions taken by a professional without the authorisation of the management.’
He added: ‘Our hospitals have to deal with hundreds of patients despite the efforts of the media to manipulate things. Unlike many we recognise our fault and we continue.’
Venezuela’s oil production has plummeted to 2.4 million barrels a day, 350,000 barrels lower than it was a year ago as reported by the New York Times