CARACAS.— The free health care program called Barrio Adentro saved 347,789 lives in five years as part of the medical attention provided to around 95% of Venezuelans, President Hugo Chávez announced on Monday, March 24.

At the inauguration of new health facilities, Chávez said the figure represented one life saved every hour, just in the first two stages of Barrio Adentro: the first providing primary care, and the second, diagnoses and rehabilitation.

The president noted that in the Barrio Adentro I program (comprising doctor’s offices in low-income areas) alone, 284 million consultations were recorded over five years, an average of 1.5 patients per second.

With the inauguration of new surgical facilities, Chávez was relaunching Barrio Adentro III, which comprises the remodeling, expansion and modernization of existing hospitals in order to guarantee quality medical attention for society.

Speaking at the University Hospital of Maracaibo in the state of Zulia, about 700 km west of Caracas, Chávez affirmed that because of its scope, the humanitarian mission carried out in Venezuela is unprecedented history.

In the initial phase of Barrio Adentro III, the state plans to outfit 130 of the country’s hospitals with almost 40,000 pieces of completely new and state-of-the-art machinery.

Granma 24-03-2008