By Marieva Fermin.
Some 250 kidney patients in the state of Barinas are facing serious risk, missing treatment sessions because of the gasoline shortage affecting them as well as staff at health-care centers.
Activists in other zones of Venezuela have already denounced patients dying because of insufficient dialysis treatment.
Carlos Montilla, administrator of the dialysis Center and member of the Foundation for Renal Patients of Barinas, issued an alert on Sunday night, August 2, through several messages in WhatsApp groups.
Montilla placed the blame on authorities, which he says are refusing the provide patients and staff with gasoline for their vehicles, labeling this attitude “a new attack from the regime.”
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He added that the problem also affects patients from other municipalities. While it is true that the government assigned buses for them, it is no less the true they have to wait up to three hours, which prevents them from getting their dialysis in the required time.
Montilla, as a spokesperson for the kidney patients, made the new director of Health in the state, Rafael Garrido, responsible for the life of the patients in Barinas, because he is the one who says there are “logistical problems” to solve the situation endured by those 250 patients.
He insisted on creating some scheme that would allow both patients and qualified personnel to get gasoline because they have to move around on foot since there is no public transport either.
“It is urgent to take into account the special condition of these Venezuelans, who are getting weaker and more tired every day,” he said.
