San Cristóbal, Chiapas — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has acknowledged that the country’s public health system is “very bad”. He says despite criticism, they will continue to hire Cuban doctors along with doctors from other countries to work in Mexico.
During his recent trip to Chiapas, one of the states lacking medical personnel, he recognized the ongoing problem.
“We have a pending issue. It is a pending issue because the public health system is very bad because we do not have the doctors in Mexico that we need, nor do we have the specialists.
“We have places in the Insurance, in the IMSS, in Health for specialists, but we do not have pediatricians, we do not have the specialists that are required and those that exist do not want to leave the cities,” he said referring to the lack of medical personnel in Mexico’s remote communities.
“We are going to send general practitioners to specialize, and although the conservatives do not like it, we are going to bring doctors from Cuba and other countries so that there is care and we do not lack specialists,” he explained.
López Obrador said that at the end of his government, the social programs will be “tied up” and “legalized” so that whoever succeeds him in office “has to continue” with those social programs.
In June, the government of Mexico put out an international call for medical doctors to be placed around the country. More than 13,000 medical positions were offered. According to the latest figures, more than 9,200 doctors applied and approximately 4,400 of those positions were filled.
