Despite the fact that they have held marches and have met at work tables with authorities, medical interns in Zacatecas ensure that the necessary protocols have not been designed to act in situations of violence in the entitylike those registered in August with shootings and roadblocks suspected members of organized crime. The interns’ complaint is summarized as follows: they feel they are left to their own devices.
“I have felt quite scared because things are getting uglier and worse and I was already in a risky situation two months ago. I asked for my change of venue and they have not given it to me, ”says ‘José’, who asks to omit his true identity.
The young man says that a few days ago he found out late, because the authorities issued a statement at night, that the next day the interns might not go to their clinics. “But I was already at my headquarters, because it is in a place that is difficult to access and I live there during the week, so by the time they gave the notice, I was already at the health center,” he explains.
The intern, graduated from the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ), says that no one from the institution has communicated to find out if he and his colleagues from other locations are okay. “No one calls us to ask how we are, even though we are alone and in remote areas. I feel quite indignant, because they have neglected us and our luck”, complains.
Until now, representatives of the doctors in training say they do not know exactly how many interns there are in risk areas, but they calculate that they are around 30.
María, another medical intern who is an hour from where the recent shootings and roadblocks took place, says that one day in the health jurisdiction they told her that, if she was not yet at the health center, the next will not show up. However, the director of the clinic told her that she did have to go.
“I stayed the weekend in the municipality where I do my social service and the director knew regarding it, so with that pretext he told me that, if I was already there, to show up at the clinic to give normal service,” he recalls.
When asked if there are action protocols in the event of shootings, blockades or some other risky situation where they are providing their social service, the interns say that they have only given them courses in which they indicate points such as if criminals arrive at their headquarters, do what they tell them.
“They tell us to stay calm and if they want us to attend to them, let us do it, but that’s a huge riskBecause if they come wounded, we don’t have enough material to treat them, and if we tell them that, they won’t believe us and they’ll get angry. We really live in a situation of constant terror of thinking regarding what might happen to us”, affirms ‘José’.
María assures that they have also been told that if necessary they can call the police. “But in many areas sometimes the power goes out and there is no telephone signal, we have already spent weekends incommunicado. It also happens that there are colleagues who are not even close to the police, and so they are told to call the closest ones they have. Those are their protocols,” she warns.
Political Animal requested an interview with the UAZ and the Health Secretariat of the entity to find out why, although the students have requested them and workshops have been held, there are still no protocols that operate in the face of acts of violence. However, until the closing of this edition there was no response.
Josue Yutzin de la Rosa, representative of the northern part of the country of the Mexican Association of Medical Interns in Social Service (AMMPSS), points out that four meetings were held with the educational, health and security authorities of the state, following the interns will perform marches to demand greater security to carry out its work, in the context of the murder of the doctor in training Erick Andrade in Durango.
With the past demonstrations, these working groups were achieved with the authorities. In the last one were representatives of the Secretary of Health, the Secretary of Security, the State Attorney General’s Office, the rectory of the UAZ and the IMSS, points out De la Rosa. “In the first two tables it was agreed that a department for intern care would be created at UAZ, because there is a person in charge of that but complaints are never addressed, it was also said that there would be protocols to act in situations of risk and so far nothing that has been done and the violence is on the rise.”
The AMMPSS representative says that the risk situation is such that there are interns who have already received messages on WhatsApp in which alleged criminal groups warn them that they are going to attack health personnel, “so there is a very great general concern” . “As a group we are seeing the relevance of asking to withdraw from high risk areaswhich is the southern part of the state, to the compañeros”.
Until now, what has happened is that there is a person in the State Table for the Construction of Peace and Security, where matters concerning these issues are resolved, to attend to issues related to interns. However, De la Rosa complains that the process for uploading songs it is very bureaucratic.
“If something happens, you have to notify the head of jurisdiction, and he notifies the rector of the university or the director, and he speaks to the head of state education and he, in turn, to the representative in the State Peace Table … Well, it is a very long process”, warns the spokesman.
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