The Venezuelan authorities must take urgent measures to ensure that the nurses’ demands are heard. The work of nurses is essential to face the pandemic and the humanitarian emergency, for which they deserve decent salaries above the poverty line of $1.25 a day, established in the international instruments that Venezuela has signed
Amnesty International launched “Enfermeras para Cuidarte” (Nurses to Take Care of You), a campaign that seeks to mobilize the solidarity of civil society to achieve changes in the protection of the lives of health workers and overcome the terrible conditions in which nurses are forced to work.
The nurses who work in public hospitals in Venezuela receive salaries from the authorities that condemn them to extreme poverty. Their salaries do not exceed $4 a month, amid the world’s highest inflation and a deep complex humanitarian emergency.
Marcos González, director of Amnesty International Venezuela, said that “the Venezuelan authorities must take urgent measures to guarantee that the demands of the nurses are heard. The work of the nurses is essential to face the pandemic and the humanitarian emergency, for which they deserve decent salaries above the poverty line of $1.25 a day, established in the international instruments that Venezuela has signed.
The possibility of contracting COVID-19 is very high due to the lack of biosafety equipment for individual protection. Nurses work excessively long hours, have to deal with work overload due to lack of personnel, and live at permanent risk of infecting their relatives. These are some of the difficulties that professional nurses face in Venezuela.
The conditions for working inside Venezuelan hospitals are inhumane. In the vast majority, there are water supply failures, ventilation equipment does not work, and there are not enough cleaning products such as soap and bleach to clean common areas. Until November, the NGO Médicos Unidos reported 242 deaths of health workers due to COVID-19; 48 of them correspond to nursing personnel.
Representatives of the nursing sector affirm that there is a large number of nurses with symptoms of bronchitis, bronchopneumonia, pneumonia, and even COVID-19 who cannot afford prescription drugs. The hospitals where they work do not guarantee them access to medicines or testing. They also affirm that in many cases they are forced to return to their jobs if they are asymptomatic, without observing the 14 days of isolation that any person positive for COVID-19 must follow.
Amnesty International has received reports of several nurses being retaliated against for defending their rights and demanding improvements in their working conditions and remuneration. Some have also denounced acts of violence against them and stigmatization; especially within their community or their place of residence due to the conditions in which they practice their profession.
“Seven months into the pandemic, it is important that the Venezuelan authorities begin to take the lives of these health workers seriously, guaranteeing them a decent salary, working conditions in compliance with the law, prevention and quality care in case of contagion”, Gómez concluded.
Translated by José Rafael Medina
