Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday opened Latin America's largest child heart hospital, with a ceremony that was broadcast during his Sunday radio and television show.

The Gilberto Rodriguez Ochoa Child Cardiology Hospital is named after the Chavez administration's first health minister, a dermatologist who died in a road accident on March 10, 2002.

Chavez said he was pleased that Venezuela would now have facilities to treat heart diseases and cardiopathy -- a birth defect that could be corrected with an operation. Congenital heart problems affect two out of every 1,000 live births in Venezuela.

He also said that the center would be able to perform some 80,000 out-patient consultations a year and plan to take care of patients from across Latin America in the future.

The 50,000-square-meter medical center has four operating theaters, 142 ordinary beds, 33 intensive care beds, a unit for intensive neo-natal care, a pharmacy and a laboratory. It will be able to perform around 1,500 operations annually.

Building the heart center cost 231 billion bolivars (107 million U.S. dollars) and equipping it cost 50 billion bolivars (23.2 million dollars).

Source: Xinhua