Health and wellness | The lack of doctors and its factors – El Sol de Hermosillo

Obtaining a place for a specialty in medicine is not an easy task. After studying for five years, plus a year of internship, plus a year of social service and registering for a postgraduate exam that is in high demand and little supply, he leaves many colleagues on the road or they choose not to take said postgraduate.

Juan Pérez has been taking the national exam for medical residency applicants for six years and has not been able to get a positive result. However, Juan knows that passing the exam to complete his training as a specialist does not guarantee him a job, so he will have to reside where life takes him to work.

In other words, if Juan gets his pass to do a postgraduate degree in a surgical specialty, for obvious reasons Juan would have to go to work in a unit where he has an operating room; So far so good, but what if Juan has to choose between a quiet city where he is from or one of the five most dangerous cities in the world? Exact. Well, that’s called: Population Explosion. This is a growth variable that cannot be controlled as the government in turn has wanted to do so far.

Insecurity is a key factor for obvious reasons and unemployment and poverty is another thing that cannot go unnoticed, it is part of what they call it: Social Welfare. In the last five years, the number of places in medical residences has increased, going from 8,787 to 38,673 applicants in 2017; to 19,265 places for 49,479 applicants in 2021.

In a morning conference on May 31, the Secretary of Health assured that the National Examination of Applicants for Medical Residences (Enarm) has been strengthened, and estimated that by 2030 there will be 27,559 places. Currently the total enrollment of students in medicine courses is 153,830 in 70 schools; in contrast, that of medical specialties is 42,008. Mexico City, the state of Mexico, Jalisco and Nuevo León are the states with the largest number of certified medical specialists.

There are 135,046 certified specialists in the country, which represents a proportion of 107.2 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants when international recommendations establish 230 per 100,000 inhabitants. There is also a deficit of general practitioners. There is a record of 256 thousand certificates, which represent 203.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. The international recommendation is 230 per 100,000, so there are 33,832 doctors short of reaching that standard. After the controversy over the hiring of 500 Cuban doctors, the publication of the National Day of Recruitment and Hiring of Medical Specialists for the hiring of Mexican doctors was announced.

The places offered include the five specialties with the highest demand within the institutions: internal medicine (1,753 places), emergencies (1,728), gynecology and obstetrics (1,572), pediatrics (1,527) and anesthesiology (1,317).

The platform to compete for the places would be open until the last minute of June 3. In a morning conference, the President acknowledged that violence and insecurity is part of the problem of the lack of medical specialists in marginalized and remote areas. “Violence breaks out and there are regions where people are in danger, professionals, doctors and, even if there are places, they don’t want to go.” He understands. The lack of general practitioners and specialists is a problem that drags on every six years.

The official figures given by the authorities say that there is a deficit of 154 thousand 780 specialist doctors and 33 thousand 832 general doctors. Demographic change will undoubtedly be interesting for the development and adaptation of the health system in our country.