Neglected mental health patients left to rot in filthy hospital

These disturbing photographs taken in a Venezuelan hospital lay bare the suffering of vulnerable mentally ill people as the country implodes.

Shocking photos from inside a Venezuelan psychiatric hospital have spotlighted the suffering of the country’s mentally ill, amid a national crisis.

Hospital services across the stricken socialist South American nation are going through a widespread crisis, reports The Sun.

To make matters worse, there’s also a shortage of medicine and the dropping salaries of doctors and nurses who depend on the state.

RELATED: Trump considering US blockade of Venezuela

RELATED: When Venezuela descended into chaos, this is where the rich ones went

A mental health patient at the Caracas Psychiatric Hospital lies on a dirty mattress and excrement surrounds him. Picture: AAP/EPA

Mental health patients stand behind the bars of their room. Picture: AAP/EPA

A neglected mental health patient lies on a bed. Picture: AAP/EPA

Hygiene rules clearly no longer apply mainly because cleaners cannot be paid for. Picture: AAP/EPA.

Rooms at the 126 year-old Caracas Psychiatric Hospital are filthy. Bunks are not even labelled with the patients’ names.

Cockroaches and other insects can be seen crawling the walls, creeping into patients’ and nurses’ beds.

An absence of maintenance personnel means garbage, human excrement and dead insects build up in rooms, bathrooms and courtyards of the sprawling sanatorium.

The crisis at the hospital has become part of a public debate in a country that has been shaken by the biggest political and economic crisis in its modern history.

The largest wing in this hospital from hell has been without power for 20 months.

Blackouts are common across the country even though it has massive oil reserves.

A patient reaches out of the window of her room. Picture: AAP/EPA.

These two men are not prisoners, but are unwell. Picture: AAP/EPA.

Insects crawl into patients’ beds and scurry through the spaces where nurses rest. Picture: AAP/EPA.

This woman has been forgotten by her society which struggles to feed itself. Picture: AAP/EPA.

A view of the emergency room where patients are taken into after admission. Picture: AAP/EPA …

WHAT IS GOING ON IN VENEZUELA?

Despite having the world’s largest oil reserves and once being South America’s richest nation, it is now one of the world’s poorest countries.

When oil prices crashed in 2014, the Venezuelan government had not used the prosperous years to build up reserves to fall back on. Large areas of the collapsing country have been left in the dark for days at a time by power outages.

People have begun to starve amid food shortages. But rather than raise taxes or cut spending, the Maduro government printed more money, which in turn caused hyperinflation at an astonishing 1.7 million per cent, meaning the currency and people’s savings are close to worthless.

More than three million Venezuelans have fled in recent years. Maduro has strongly resisted calls for an early vote or that he leave power early before his six-year second term ends in 2025, sparking huge anti-government demonstrations.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission