(Bloomberg) - "Venezuela's congressional finance committee approved $600 million in after-budget spending to fund repairs on 62 of the nation's public hospitals.

The funding, available to legislators as long as world oil prices exceed those calculated in the nation's annual budget, will be transferred to the Health Ministry's Rafael Rangel National Health Institute. The agency will oversee repairs to hospital electricity and air conditioning systems, elevators, emergency operating rooms and x-ray areas.

Venezuela is the world's sixth largest exporter of crude, and oil revenue makes up nearly half of its annual budget.

President Hugo Chávez, who nationalized 'strategic' industries including the energy and telecommunications earlier this year, has boosted Venezuela's public health system, bringing an estimated 20,000 Cuban doctors to staff new neighborhood clinics and training Venezuelan physicians to practice community health (...)

Legislators today backed plans to create a subcommittee to track use of the cash, calling for communal councils and local health committees to report any apparent misuse of funds, Congresswoman Iroshima Bravo told state media. The finance committee in April investigated private health fees, which Chávez claims are helping to fuel the nation's 19.5 percent annual inflation.

Public hospitals in Venezuela's capital city Caracas will receive the bulk of today's funding, with 291 billion bolivars, while hospitals in the western Zulia state are due to collect 107 billion bolivars for repairs, state media said (...)".