Every January 19 marks the anniversary of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). It is already 79 years old and during its history it has faced world wars, natural disasters, pandemics and all kinds of obstacles. Regardless of the adversities, she has managed to recover and continue with her work. But although it is a pride to belong to the health union, it cannot be ignored that there are some disadvantages of working in this institution.
Current medical staff
To begin with, it should be remembered that to date it is made up of 146 thousand male and female nurses and more than 84 thousand male and female doctors. The figure may seem too high, but it is actually small if one considers that there are at least 70 million rights holders. In addition, not all of them are distributed equally throughout the national territory. In some regions far from the big cities, a worrying shortage of personnel prevails.
In any case, every year there are thousands of young people who graduate from universities and their desire is to start working immediately. One of your first options is to do it in the IMSS but here the first of the disadvantages because not everyone gets it. The biggest drawback is that the places to enter are insufficient. And by this we mean those who really have a contract because to date there are thousands who work for fees and lack benefits.
But now, it is time to move forward and think about those who did manage to enter to work in the institution. This is a huge achievement because in some cases applicants have to make several attempts and wait for years until they finally achieve their goal.
Many patients and few doctors
However, once inside the public sector a terrible reality arrives. Every day you will have before you a large number of patients to attend to. Just look at the crowded waiting rooms, which means there is no time to rest. As a result of the above, the chances that doctors will develop work stress they are very tall.
As a result of the above, in most cases patients tend to blame the doctor for the deficiencies of the system. They think that the time they have to wait to go to the consultation is the fault of the doctor and consequently they tend to show a rude and haughty attitude within the office. This means that your work days are even more complicated.
While another of the constants is the lack of technology that persists in many of the public hospitals. The big complaint of the staff is the obsolete equipment with which they have to attend to the patients. The lack of investment is responsible for doctors working with machines manufactured decades ago.
Although that is not all because there is also a lack of medicines. Recently, the IMSS has been accused of not having enough drug supplies for children with cancer. The authorities have recognized the problem but have not provided a real solution. While in this type of circumstance the doctor is always affected because he is thought to be the culprit even though the culprit comes from above.
All the disadvantages mentioned are those that are part of working as a doctor in the IMSS or in public health in general. But regardless of the adversities, what cannot be denied is that it is an institution that always offers its maximum effort and works with the few or many resources available to it.