the president of MexicoAndrés Manuel López Obrador, announced this Wednesday that his government is seeking to hire doctors from Cuba and Europe to solve the deficit of health personnel in public hospitals, despite criticism from the opposition.
“We are going to have the governments help us first, as is the case with Cuba, we are going to explore, we are seeing that, European countries, countries that have professionals and that also always help or act in solidarity,” López Obrador said in his conference daily.
The president made this announcement after not reaching the goal of covering almost 14,000 vacancies with the “Recruitment for specialist doctors” campaign that the Government launched at the end of May.
The president recalled that Cuba will send 500 doctors to Mexico in a first stage after signing a health agreement that he signed on May 8 during his visit to Havana.
“We are going to bring doctors from Cuba, and we are very grateful to the Government of Cuba, to the brotherly, supportive Government of Cuba because we are going to start with 500 doctors,” he reiterated.
“But we are going to need more and we are also going to look in other countries because we need to have specialists in all hospitals,” he added.
Given the controversy generated by the Cuban doctors, the president criticized opponents for accusing him of “promoting insurrection” and “joining leftist governments” with this contract.
He also accused the “conservatives” of “having a hardened heart and not having love for the people.”
Mexico discloses details of the health agreement signed with Cuba
“What does the nationality, the origin of the doctor, have to do with health? Why this dogmatism, this fanaticism? Why this ideological charge? Why don’t we bet more on humanism and practical judgment?” López Obrador questioned.
The hirings are announced while Mexico has 2.4 doctors per 1,000, higher than the average of 2 per 1,000 inhabitants of Latin America and the Caribbean, but lower than the average of 3.5 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD), according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
The Government has accused doctors of not wanting to work in rural or marginalized areas, while health personnel have responded that there are areas where they cannot work due to violence.
López Obrador asserted that the problem of the health system is a legacy of previous governments of the “neoliberal period.”
“These corrupt, conservative, retrograde, left the country without doctors, they are responsible for the fact that in Mexico we do not have the doctors we need,” he denounced.
