Néstor Jiménez and Arturo Sánchez Jiménez
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, December 31, 2025, p. 6
In the last five years, 45 thousand specialist doctors have been trained, who would not have had a space if the policy that prevailed until 2018 had been maintained, said Eduardo Clark García, undersecretary of Sectoral Integration and Development of the Ministry of Health.
When attending the morning press conference at the National Palace, he explained that in the last six-year term the deficit in this matter was detected and that is why the positions of this type went from just over 8 thousand in 2018 to almost 19 thousand in 2021.
Eduardo Clark explained that in 2011, through the residency system, less than 6 thousand specialist doctors were trained, including all specialties, from internists, orthopedists and gynecologists to surgeons. That trend continued until 2019.
During the six-year term of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, especially as a result of the pandemic, it was detected that this staff was insufficient, so priority was given to increasing spaces, said the federal official.
He explained that in the health sector, which includes the IMSS-Wellness system and the state Health Secretariats, focused on the care of those who do not have social security, the number of specialist doctors in training increased by 102 percent compared to the 2018 figures, with 2,816 additional positions.
At the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), almost 5,000 medical specialists were trained per year, an increase of 69 percent.
In the Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers (ISSSTE) “the number of specialists increased practically four times”: 363 percent, that is, 1,533 more doctors. And in the health services of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) there was an increase of 162 percent, with 198 additional doctors.
“In the last seven years we have invested in the training of specialist doctors not only for the short term, but for the future of our country,” he stressed.
Heading towards the academic cycle of residencies that will begin next March, he stated that the selection is now carried out under a new model based on meritocracy.
Meanwhile, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo announced that the Women’s Oncology Hospital in Cuautepec, in Mexico City, will be inaugurated in January.
