Announcement of the arrival of the first 60 Cuban doctors

Emir Olivares Alonso

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Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, July 24, 2022, p. 4

Rosamorada, Nay., Under the premise that health is a topic of human rights and not ideological, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador emphasized that his government has decided to hire doctors from abroad, initially from Cuba, in order to bring this service to all corners of the country.

I made the decision to hire specialists from abroad and doctors from Cuba are going to come, because health has nothing to do with ideologies, but with human rights. And if we have to bring them from the United States, Russia, Cuba, Japan or France, we will have them here.

The supervision of the progress of the Health for Well-being program at the IMSS-Well-being hospital in Rosamorada, Nayarit – which was headed by the federal president, since Governor Miguel Ángel Navarro suffers from covid – was the culmination for the learn about the arrival of the first group of 60 specialists from the island to the country, who will carry out their work in this entity starting tomorrow – this as part of the agreement between the governments of Mexico and Cuba last May, in which it was agreed to bring 500 doctors.

A series of protests forced this to be confirmed in an interview at the end of the act by the director of hospital care for the state, Roberto Tovar Gutiérrez, who added that in the case of Rosamorada, there will be 12 Cuban doctors who will join the works for the benefit of the population.

We come to work, not to talk

The envoys of the Caribbean country were present at the ceremony in this entity, where three months ago the government project for the federalization of the system began.

The controversy generated from the opposition’s criticism of López Obrador’s measure made reporters seek the declaration of the Cuban mission; however, the doctors avoided prominence and evaded the interviews. One of them told this newspaper, without a recorder, we come to work, not to talk.

From this coastal region, located in the north of the entity – the land, the story goes, from which the ethnic groups that would eventually become the Mexicas and found the Great Tenochtitlán departed – the head of the federal Executive reaffirmed that the The commitment of his administration is to bring quality and free health to all corners of the country, in particular for the most vulnerable people who do not have social security.

They denounce dismissals

Dozens of state residents and health workers attended, among whom were several who were protesting because, they said, they had been fired.

The reproaches were addressed in particular to the federal Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer. They blamed him for the lack of budget for Branch 12, which has caused the dismissal of several of them. The official asserted that there is dialogue and that the differences can be resolved, but the complainants raised their decibels: It isn’t true.

Officials from the sector clarified that these personnel it would not be transferred to the IMSS-Well-being, it remains in the state Health Secretariat and its regularization corresponds to Federal Health; however, it was agreed to review who could join to the new scheme.

When the President spoke about the hiring of foreign doctors and basifications, those who protested raised their voices again. Yes there arelaunched some before the president’s affirmation that he could verify the deficit of specialists in the country, to which he stopped: We are going to basicize all health workers and we are going to improve the service. Those who were fired unjustifiably will be reinstated. I only tell you one thing, you have to review what they do, because we do not want people who get paid without working. After that assertion, those demonstrating lowered their banners and ended the protests.

Previously, the general director of the IMSS, Zoé Robledo, explained that with an investment of 54 million pesos for the new federal health project, the López Obrador administration managed to make the IMSS-Wellness program in Nayarit operate 100 percent with a comprehensive model for health in 12 hospitals, in the medical specialty units of cancerology, hemodialysis, ambulatory surgery, in 245 first-level units and in health centers.

The next stage of the transformation of the state health system, he added in reference to the protesters, is focused on Branch 12, which has to do with public health, since it should start with medical care in hospitals.

neither safe nor popular

The president stressed that the decision to bring doctors from other nations is his alone and he made it even knowing how the opponents were going to respond, the conservatives.

He added: What they called Seguro Popular was neither safe nor popular. Money was sent to state governments and used for other purposes or stolen. Do you know how much the government bought in medicine? 100 billion pesos, only to ten distribution companies, and three sold 65 billion a year to the government. And who were the owners of those distribution companies, because they weren’t even laboratories? Pure corrupt politician. That is why it has been difficult for us to comply with the commitment that we have a quality, universal health system that guarantees what is established, and has become a dead letter, article 4 of the Constitution, the right of the people to health.