Necessary, 11 billion pesos for free medical care in federal hospitals

Mexico City. Between 9 billion and 11 billion pesos will be needed in 2025 to ensure that people do not pay for care and medicines in national health institutes and federal reference hospitals, in which, starting in 2021, free services will be established. . To this amount must be added the economic resources for paying salaries, maintenance, feeding patients and supplies, essential for the operation of the hospitals.

This is official information received by the new head of the Coordinating Commission of the National Institutes of Health and High Specialty Hospitals, Martha Zapata Tarrés, pediatric oncologist, who replaced Gustavo Reyes Terán since October 1.

The network under its charge is committed to receiving patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With 1,047 additional positions hired – out of more than 8,000 that are needed – during the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the number of surgeries and specialty consultations increased, a report indicates.

The Heart Attack Code was launched, with a network that includes the National Institute of Cardiology and the General and Juárez hospitals of Mexico as coordinating centers for 15 hospitals in the capital. Through a unique care protocol, the time between the patient’s arrival at the first contact unit and their transfer to one of the specialty centers was reduced by 40 percent. Thus, mortality decreased to 5.25 percent (the national average is 28).

The data can improve if the population knows the strategy and importance of seeking medical attention, as well as with greater integration of first and second level care units.

The document says that the offer of dialysis and hemodialysis services for people with chronic kidney disease increased by 50 percent, included for the first time in the coverage of free services. To this end, the aforementioned commission coordinated the purchase of 149 hemodialysis machines and 780 peritoneal dialysis cyclers that were installed in 11 federal institutes and hospitals. Here, the main challenge is the availability of money to maintain service provision and hire more staff. It will be up to Zapata Tarrés to continue these and other actions. In the past four years, the specialist was Research Coordinator of the IMSS Foundation. Previously, he worked at the Federico Gómez Children’s Hospital of Mexico and at the National Institute of Pediatrics in the care of children with cancer.

Other pending issues in federal hospitals have to do with the unfinished works in several hospitals that are waiting for administrative procedures to be resolved and resources to be released. One is the Women’s Hospital, which since November 2023 has been authorized to use 148 million pesos for the renewal of equipment. The current ones are more than 30 years old, but the process is handled by the Health Fund for Wellbeing. The report also shows that although this Coordinating Commission has been responsible for complying with republican austerity, health services must be exempt from savings in the payment of drinking water, electricity, fuel, food services for patients and workers, and in maintenance and conservation of properties.

It will also be up to the new administration to address issues that involve other public agencies, such as having referral and counter-referral mechanisms for patients with the IMSS and the ISSSTE, as well as for the exchange of services. This is relevant because 20 percent of the users who go to national health institutes and federal hospitals are beneficiaries of social security, but since there is no payment mechanism between the institutions, they make high out-of-pocket expenses.