“The opening of vacancies and the hiring of foreign doctors, regardless of the number, is not going to solve the problem of the health system; it is not the doctors, the culprit of this deficiency is the system,” said Dr. Daniela de la Rosa Samboni, vice president of the Association for the Study and Control of Health Care-Associated Infections.
The doctor mentioned that both foreign and Mexican doctors are exposed to a series of deficiencies and precariousness that put their integrity at risk. In this sense, she mentioned a case of rape in Chiapas of an internist, and the kidnapping of a doctor also in a remote community.
“The lack of doctors for the demand that exists in Mexico is the tip of the iceberg of a health system that has been hit historically,” Samboni added.
Dr. Luis Francisco Molina, president of the Mexican College of General Medicine —which brings together more than 5,000 members throughout the country—, agreed that in all health institutions in the country the demand is very high, but the attention is insufficient.
“It is a snowball that has accumulated over the years, and practically responds to the lack of infrastructure and basic equipment for training (doctors) and care (for the population),” he said.
The associations pointed out that each year in Mexico there is a generation of 17,000 general practitioners, however, they are not distributed evenly due to the lack of good job offers, and even, they highlighted, many are forced to work in pharmacies.
