The quality of the health services that all Mexicans receive is at risk, due to the fact that the Twelfth District Court in Administrative Matters of Mexico City denied the final suspension that, in an Amparo Trial, sought to stop the elimination of 35 Official Mexican Standards (NOMs) that regulate the standards that must be followed in the care of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
The intention to cancel these rules was announced by the Ministry of Health on June 1, although said action has not been carried out thanks to the fact that the judge Blanca Lobo Dominguez granted -on July 17- a provisional suspension, which was ratified by a Collegiate Circuit Court.
However, the head of the Twelfth District Court in Administrative Matters decided not to grant the definitive suspension, which implies that the health authorities of the federal government may cancel the 35 NOMs in which the merits of the Amparo Judgment are resolved.
In this case, the plaintiff has the option of filing an Appeal for Review so that a Collegiate Circuit Court revokes the determination of the togada, although this may take several months.
The rules that the Ministry of Health intends to cancel are those that establish how medical care should be provided for conditions such as:
- diabetes,
- arterial hypertension,
- prostate cancer,
- osteoporosis,
- cervical cancer,
- breast cancer,
- anger and
- sexually transmitted infections, among other ailments.
The NOMs are mandatory provisions of a technical nature, whose objective is to regulate the way in which certain processes or services have to be carried out. In the case of regulations governing the health system, these guarantee that there are homogeneous criteria for the care of diseases not only in public institutions, but also in private clinics, offices and hospitals.
The 35 official standards that are trying to be suppressed, according to a diagnosis made by the Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, regulate around 90% of the diseases that most occur in the Mexican population.
The list of the Ministry of Health includes the disappearance of the NOMs for the surveillance, prevention and control of overweight and obesity, tuberculosis, leprosy, cholera, sexually transmitted infections, diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, prostate cancer, osteoporosis, cervical cancer, and breast cancer, among other.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the five main causes of death in Mexico are heart disease, which in 2022 caused 200,535 people to lose their lives; diabetes, with 115,681 victims; malignant tumors, that is, cancer, with 90,018 deaths; liver diseases, which recorded 41,420 deaths; and accidents, in which 37,438 people died.
Last June, after the announcement of the cancellation of these regulations, the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo Lopez Gatell assured that “it is not necessary to have Official Norms or their equivalents to regulate the prescription, therapeutics, (and) the diagnosis of each one of the diseases“, because in our country -he said- “comprehensive medical care” is provided for the 35 conditions indicated in the NOMs.
However, most health specialists, including the National Academy of Medicine, consider that these regulations should not disappear, since they ensure that all patients in the country have the same type of diagnosis and treatment, regardless of whether the patient goes to the public sector or private medicine.
In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced, on June 9, that it would investigate the reasons why the Mexican federal government intends to cancel these NOMs, while -one month later- the Pan American Health Organization offered their technical services to the authorities of our country, in order to analyze the relevance of eliminating these regulations.
MORE NEWS:
surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.