Health, stone in AMLO boot

MEXICO. The video went viral on social media. It had enough drama to shock: the patient died on the sidewalk because they didn’t want to treat himr in the General Hospital of Saltillo, in the north of the country.

“We just let him go, he’s fine,” the receptionist told the man when he returned to see himself again because he wasn’t feeling well. doctors claimed that they had no free bedsthat there are other patients on the waiting list and that there are priorities.

That was six months ago, and many others who were just as fortunate joined the cause. September to present other victims documented in the press followedto different cities: to Torreon, Merida, Delicia, Matamoros…

The Mexican government has no official data on this type of death. The only document that exists is on medical negligence. and is focused by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) through complaints filed by victims or their relatives.

Against the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) (which receives the most complaints each year) In 2023, the CNDH has already issued eight recommendations on inadequate health care.lack of life protection or abuse in the states of Aguascalientes, Sonora, CDMX and Mexico State.

Celida Duque, Director of Medical Benefits at IMSS, acknowledged that not only does the organization have problems, but in general, throughout the system, the organization of services is imperfect as well as long waiting times, inadequate service hours and bureaucratic procedures; lack of medical staff, medicines and supplies; mistreatment or lack of trust; and geographic barriers.

Director of Health Quality and Education José Luis Garcia recently stated that Mexico currently needs 200,000 doctors and specialistss offer health services to people without social security, mostly in marginalized areas.

The reality, which is reflected both in journalistic cases and in official figures, gives a contradictory character pledge by President Andrés Manuel López Obradorwhich from his early administration promised special attention to the health care system.

In the last hours he repeated that the country will soon be like “Denmark”one of the world’s examples of healthcare.

“This year we are going to conclude this seed of universal effective and free healththat is, that the case in Denmark is ongoing, so that our opponents take note and every 15 days we will report on progress, ”the president said at the end of February.

TESTS

Six in the morning in the municipality of Pilkaya, in the south of the country andThe queue of patients is long: it goes around the block twice. Men and women are waiting for “chips” for specialized care: x-rays, blood tests, mammography and diabetes screening, services that are carried out on mobile trucks.

Are mobile devices that travel throughout the year state of Guerrero.

“I’m going to save about 10,000 pesos (about $400).”says Esmeralda Bustos, a grocery clerk who has been in line since 4pm. “This is my salary for two months.”

Both Esmeralda and other patients at the health day held at the beginning of the year know that preventive health can be very expensive in private clinics or hospitals and prefer to get up early in a municipality of about 15,000 people.

“It’s a pity they only come every six months,” warns Juan Martinez, a farmer who no longer has enough “tokens” because they only give 30 a day and he didn’t show up on time: he had to go water the crop. first. He’ll be back the next day, he says: wants to determine “your sugar” in the blood and prevent or find out if you have diabetes, which is one of the leading causes of death in Mexico.

Health Day in the municipality of Guerrero is one of the government tries to scale healthcare from response to preventionn, one of the failures in which doctors are constantly reproached.

Enrique Ruelas, President of the International Future Health Institute, commented. some shortcomings, limitations and problems of the Seguro Popula modelr focus on disease and individual risk, mostly reactive and episodic, more prone to acute care, and limited service and drug coverage.

“We need prevention” emphasizes.

For example: in one of the most ambitious days that IMSS had this year he achieved “in two days” 68,721 identification of priority diseasesperformed more than 3,000 operations, 10 kidney transplants, 12 corneal transplants, two hematopoietic cell transplants and one liver transplant, 14 cadaveric donations, of which one is multi-organ, and 13 tissue donations.

There was nothing prophylactic, except for the annual days when flu vaccines are applied, and other days the shortage was widely condemned; donation of oral serum, screening for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis C; orientation in the field of sexual and reproductive health, oral cavity, psyche and nutrition.

“The problem is that both care and education were limited and inconsistent.”

STOCK CONTROL

the president entered into a contract ahead of schedule with the UN and the Pan American Health Organization (UNOPS)after signing an agreement on July 31, 2020 for the purchase of medicines and medical material in Mexico.

This signature was intended to eradicate “corruption” and save millions of pesos by 2024. Then there were complications. between delays, canceled tenders and alleged cost overruns.

Last October, the health sector announced the end of cooperation, arguing that it no longer needed UNOPS and he said that 99% of the contract keys were delivered on time and that they were savings of about $500 million.

Recently, the government has also changed his stance from 2019 when he blocked distributors from the private sector. which has worked with previous governments and in the first drug bidding of 2023 has already allowed participation up to 70%.

Hugo Lopez-Gatelldeputy minister of federal health, acknowledged that it still exists and that they will again enter into agreements with private distributors, but with new rules to avoid “monopolistic” actions and “blackmail” as in the past.

NUMBERS

According to the National Evaluation Council, in 2020 there were 15 million people who lost their membership in the health servicee. Today, a total of 35 million people do not have access to health services, the same as the figure in 2010.

He IMSS reported that between 2019 and 2022, there were more than 55 million outstanding drug prescriptions. (when until 2019 we saw an average of about 1.5 million unfilled prescriptions per year).

In the National Health and Nutrition Study, Ensanut 2021, infant vaccination coverage was reported to have declined halved (from 74% to less than 37%) between 2016 and 2018 and remained stable in 2021.

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