Four radiotherapy units are out of service in Apure state, Western Venezuela, right on the border with Colombia, according to health-care sources. People can’t even get X-rays in that state.
The X-ray units at three hospitals in Apure -hospital Lorenza de Castillo, San Juan de Payara, Pedro Camejo municipal and hospital José Antonio Páez- are out of service due to the high cost of the chemicals to develop and fix images of X-ray studies.
Experts in said studies told El Pitazo that Dr. Pablo Acosta Ortíz was carrying out up to 7,000 X-ray studies a year, where nowadays it can only do from 20 to 50 of those. A similar situation to that in San Fernando central hospital, three years ago made 6,000 X-rays a day to only 50 nowadays.
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El Pitazo saw no X-ray action at the CDI Parque de Ferias -most CDIs are run by Cuban cooperation workers- in Biruaca or the one in Campo Alegre.
And those patients lucky enough to get X-rays need to bring a CD-ROM to save the studies there. A single X-ray can cost Bs 1 million or $14, in a country where half of the working population makes the minimum wage of $3 a month.
