Natalia Vitela / Agencia Reforma
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 | 05:00
Mexico City.— The shortage of medicines in public hospitals means that millions of prescriptions are not filled in institutions such as the IMSS, the ISSSTE and the state health systems.
From last year to date, the Zero Desabasto Collective has especially documented the lack of medicines to treat different types of cancer, as well as mental illnesses.
The IMSS left 1.7 million prescriptions unfilled in 2017, while in 2022 the lack of medicines exceeded 22.8 million prescriptions, according to the report Radiografía del Desabasto by the Zero Desabasto Collective.
“By 2023, reports of drug shortages to treat mental illnesses have skyrocketed. Mental health is in the first place and, secondly, the medications to treat post-transplant patients,” explained Andrés Castañeda, spokesperson for the Cero Desabasto Collective.
“And the reports we receive on the Zero Desabasto platform are the tip of the iceberg; it is only a percentage of the patients who do not fill their prescription in the country.
“The trends are maintained when we compare these reports with data from the IMSS, from ISSSTE, that is where we can see that there is indeed a serious problem of shortages,” added Castañeda.
An example is Alan, 37, who suffers from schizophrenia and requires a medication called clozapine to avoid seizures that cause hallucinations and voices that tell him that his family wants to kill him. This situation causes him to be aggressive with his relatives.
María Luisa, her sister, said that this medicine, which they have always acquired in the private sector because they have never been supplied in the public sector, is currently also in shortage.
Octavio Gómez-Dantés, an expert in Public Health, warned that the decisions being made by the federal government go against the promise of achieving a health system like Denmark’s.
The health system in Denmark is public, while in Mexico the supply of services is so poor that Mexicans are making increasing use of private services, and proof of this is the increase in doctor’s offices adjacent to pharmacies.
