Getting Professional Medical Care After an Economic or Societal Collapse by J.G. Martinez for The Organic Prepper
One of the main concerns of the responsible caregiver/parent is to protect the health and well-being of our loved ones. And a large part of our ability to do that derives from our ability to get proper medical attention. In a SHTF situation, this is even more important. Do you know how to get professional medical after an economic collapse? Do you know what to do?
If not, you’re not alone. This is a very thorny problem to work through. But we are not without a historical guide here.
There are lessons to glean from the collapse of Venezuela.
Please allow me to describe how the healthcare has been in my country the last 3 decades.
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The healthcare industry started to become overwhelmed in the 1980s. Even though the percentage of doctors per 100,000 inhabitants was growing steadily (see Table 1, pag. 15), the economic happenings did not have a meaningful positive role in the world of healthcare.
Mind you, there is no recent data within the last 10 years that could be considered reliable enough to provide clear data on this issue.
This said, it would be unfair to not acknowledge the huge effort and money which was poured into the restructuring of the healthcare system. This was done with oil price over $100 per barrel, of course. Then things changed, and we’re still feeling the consequences of the ransacking. Previously, we had infirmaries all over the country, called “CDI”. These were announced with great fanfare and propaganda as one of the “achievements of the revolution.” Many of them now closed or almost empty.
Brain drain hit our country hard, and a large segment of the healthcare professionals decided to get out of dodge. This created a pressing need for trained clinicians, and now, those who decided to stay are making more money than ever.
This profession is one of the better paid ones down here, and not just in Venezuela (where an independent MD can make over $4000/year – enough to live like a king), but it is a very good salary in any country in South America. Even with outrageously high living expenses of $1500 (and I don’t even know anyone with such high life expenses), an MD here can live without lack of anything.
According to these 2008 statistics, the main death in Venezuela causes were heart strokes…and homicides. At this moment I can’t quote a reliable source on this with statistics for this past year, but what I can do is to provide a description of the general scenario about the health care process.
Let’s analyze the case of a close friend who twisted an ankle recently.
Living in a socialist state most certainly qualifies as placing this friend in a position of needing medical attention after SHTF.
There is an infirmary center nearby run by the Cubans which specializes in these types of injuries. Whether or not these people are qualified to treat patients is debatable. They just work there, imposed by the ruling socialist party, and that’s it. The astute patient will be cautious with such, but the poor, countryside woman with an injured child doesn’t care. She just wants some level of treatment. And “some” level is what she will get.
