President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed his confidence that Mexico’s next president, Claudia Sheinbaum, will continue working to guarantee the right to health-care for all Mexicans. “The privatization of the health-care sector was harmful and silent, but the system is now on its feet. It has to be consolidated. I am confident because Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum is very sensitive, she is very familiar with this problem and how to deal with it; she has considerable experience,” he said.
In presenting the final report of the Ministry of Health results, its head, Jorge Alcocer, thanked President López Obrador for the opportunity to be his partner in the transformation of the health-care system. Achievements include:
-Consolidation of IMSS Bienestar as a public, free, universal, preventive, and nationally planned system, attending to 53.2 million people without social security through 669 hospitals, 11,935 health-care centers, 1,895 auxiliary units, and 51 pharmaceutical warehouses.
-7,199 health-care centers operate seven days a week.
-Hiring of medical specialists:
-100% of the required medical specialists have been hired in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Colima, State of México, Michoacán, Nayarit, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, and Zacatecas.
-95% of the required medical specialists have been hired in Quintana Roo, Morelos, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Mexico City, Campeche, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Hidalgo.
-3,101 Cuban medical specialists deployed in 35 specialties in 23 states.
-The delivery of credentials to IMSS Bienestar beneficiaries will begin on October 1 in a first stage. Personnel will visit 1,925 municipalities to distribute 5.2 million credentials.
President López Obrador denounced the Veracruz courts that have granted irregular construction permits, such as the one that allowed the construction of a multi-story building that disrupts the urban and historical landscape of the port. “I call it ‘El Adefesio’, yes, it is a construction of bad taste, an eyesore, in one of the most beautiful and historic places in Mexico”, he explained.
The head of the National Civil Protection Coordinating Council, Laura Velázquez, reported that on Monday, September 23 at 9:15pm, category 3 hurricane John made landfall southeast of Marquelia, Guerrero, resulting in the death of two people, causing material losses, leading to fallen trees, sinkholes, landslides, and damage to electricity in Guerrero and Oaxaca. To deal with the emergency, Plan DN-III, the Navy Plan, and the National Guard Plan were activated. More than 18,000 members of the National Guard and the armed forces were deployed and 170 temporary shelters were set up. Hurricane John has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.
