Official Gazette publishes Strategic Health Program for Well-being

Nestor Jimenez

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, September 8, 2022, p. 13

Due to the poor investment, maintenance and scarce expansion carried out in the past decades to the infrastructure of the public health systemthere are cases of healthcare desertsas in Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja California Sur and Durango, where the population in most of its municipalities has to travel more than 120 minutes to access the nearest hospital for first-level care.

As part of the Strategic Health Program for Wellbeing, published yesterday in the Official Journal of the Federationa diagnosis is also presented on the changes in the main causes of medical care between 1990 and 2019, a period in which the cases of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and those classified as self harm and violence.

In the analysis that is part of the document, it is detailed that the states with the largest extensions of health infrastructure deserts (given the average travel time to the nearest first-level unit), are Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, Baja California Sur , Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Campeche and Quintana Roo.

Regarding the main health problems, it is indicated that, while in 1990 the list was headed by maternal and neonatal problems; respiratory diseases and tuberculosis; other non-community; enteric infections, and unintentional injuries, in 2019 the causes changed. The main ones were diabetes; cardiovascular diseases; neoplasms; musculoskeletal disorders, and other non-community.

medical care for self harm and violence that in 1990 they were in the 13th place, rose to the eighth place; mental disorders went from 12th to seventh place.

At the same time, it is established that in 2020, the main cause of death was heart disease, followed by covid-19, diabetes mellitus, malignant tumors, pneumonia and influenza, liver and cerebrovascular diseases.

The program, released by the Ministry of Health, points out that in the consolidation of the Health System for Well-being, the institutions that make up the National Health System will be encouraged to collaborate in an articulated mannerand for which the federalization of health care services aimed at the population without social security will be sought, through the IMSS-Wellness Program, in the entities that adopt freely this system.