Medical Community Losses Carry Long-Term Impacts
In our recent blogs, Solidarity Bridge has reported on our efforts to restock medical supplies depleted at all levels of the Bolivian healthcare system as doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers respond to surging COVID-19 infections. However, we are even more concerned by the devastation borne by Bolivia’s most important healthcare asset—it’s dedicated corps of doctors, nurses, and medical specialists.
As reported by the Bolivian newspaper, Pagina Siete, at least 100 doctors died from COVID-19 in the first 5 months of the pandemic. One hundred more healthcare workers—including nurses, dentists, and biochemists—have also died from the virus. In a country as small as Bolivia, where “everybody knows everybody” particularly in specialized professional and medical circles, the impact weighs heavily on the hearts of our colleagues. Our partners report that, among the medical community there is a sense that at least one doctor is dying each day. Some believe the toll to be much higher, but all agree that healthcare workers, regardless of their age or underlying conditions, are among those most affected by this pandemic. In July, when most hospitals collapsed and stopped accepting new patients, an estimated 80% of health workers treating people in small primary care settings (like rural clinics and nursing homes) had contracted the virus due to a lack of PPE.
Dr. Oscar Urenda died on July 24, he was the minister of health for the department of Santa Cruz.
These deaths are occurring from the local to the highest national levels. In a span of just two days in July, the eastern Bolivian department of Santa Cruz mourned the loss of two of its health sector leaders: Dr. Oscar Urenda and Dr. Roberto Tórrez Fernández, Health Minister and Chief of Epidemiology, respectively. Santa Cruz is the low-lying, tropical region hit early and hard by COVID-19, and the loss of these two highly-experienced and widely-esteemed doctors heading the region’s coronavirus response was almost too much to bear. Dr. Urenda was also a personal friend of Solidarity Bridge, having supported the expansion of our surgical programs in the state that encompasses a third of Bolivian territory.
These deaths only begin to illustrate the tremendous long-term impact the pandemic will have on the Bolivian health system. The President of the Union of Medical Fields, Fernando Romero, estimates that this dramatic loss of professional expertise will impact the Bolivian health system for more than 20 years. “Unfortunately, great mentors and teachers in their specialty have been lost—among them, pulmonologists, gynecologists and others, who were not only recognized nationally but internationally," he added. It took more than a decade to train each of these specialists, and their accumulated knowledge is irreplaceable.
Structural inequities in global health have long meant that low and middle income countries like Bolivia have inadequate numbers of medical professionals to treat the needs of the population. This limits patients’ access to care, and puts doctors under immense pressure. The loss of so many health workers in this pandemic brings us great sadness on a personal level, and is also a significant cause for concern for the future. It is just one of the reasons that our mission to support and uplift the Bolivian medical community is more vital today than ever before.
At Solidarity Bridge, we envision a world where the health needs of those most vulnerable are prioritized and local medical professionals have the necessary resources to serve their communities. To this end, we’re redoubling our efforts to support the Bolivian doctors and nurses who carry the heavy weight of healthcare provision in the most difficult of circumstances, and who also will be charged with rebuilding the Bolivian healthcare system in the years to come.