The federal health secretary says there are 250 abandoned health facilities around the country, and described them as “scandalous monuments to incompetence, corruption and influence peddling.”

Speaking in Mérida, Yucatán, Jorge Alcocer Varela said the clinics, health centers and hospitals were built to offer medical care to citizens who are not part of a social security program. Some are unfinished, others operate without the basic required equipment.

Alcocer charged that the investment of resources in the health sector has not been transparent nor has it led to an improvement in public health.

“Corruption is everywhere. This is a somber picture, that’s true, but it reveals a problem in health services that has become a national emergency. Investment in infrastructure has stopped and what has been built has been left without adequate maintenance.

The current state of the fragmented health sector leads to inequality, and the government of Mexico has failed to guarantee the public’s fundamental right to health, continued Alcocer.

He said the new unified health system announced last week by President López Obrador will guarantee that right by providing free health care and medications to the population that is outside of the scope of current social security programs, gradually leading to the implementation of a universal health care system.

This first stage of the program will pay special attention to the population living in marginalized regions.

“Free and universal health care will be a reality for all of us, propelled by primary health care that will look after the individual to heal society,” he said.

Source: Reforma (sp)