- Minimizing the severity of symptoms and the cost of medical services are the main impediments.
- During 2021, the third reason for not going to medical services was the possibility of contracting Covid-19.
- It is necessary to promote preventive care, improve eating habits and physical activity.
Preventive health services are a fundamental part of any country because they are the key to anticipating problems. In addition, they are also useful to identify diseases from their first manifestations. In this way there are more chances of healing and avoid unfortunate events.
Habits of Mexican patients
However, one of the drawbacks is that very few people have the habit of going to regular medical check-ups. According to the National Health and Nutrition Survey (Ensanut) 2021, a fifth of the Mexican population reported having had at least one health need in a year. Of that number, 88% sought medical attention and 87% received it. Although the unfortunate part is that only 12% used preventive services and 48% sought care already in acute phases.
Faced with this situation, Dr. Luis Fernando Hernández Lezama, president of the Association’s Technical Committee I am patientwarned that the average Mexican needs to improve their education and habits that benefit their health in the medium and long term.
He also noted that it is imperative promote the culture of preventive medicine since it is much cheaper and more effective than treating diseases in advanced or terminal phases. To achieve these objectives, the regulation of medical services is required so that they improve in presence and quality, in addition to adequate control of care costs and medications to improve their accessibility, as established by law.
Why don’t Mexicans go to a doctor?
Among the reasons indicated by those surveyed for not seeking care, it was identified that the two main ones were perception of little seriousness or the cost of health servicesas well as the time required to achieve care in public services.
With respect to the economic costs in the private ones: 63% considered that it was not something so serious and 13% did not attend due to lack of time and resources. This reveals that the population has more immediate priorities than health and could be related to the availability and accessibility of health services.
“It can be said that people do not go to the doctor until it is practically unavoidable and many times it is because of the expense that this implies. However, we must be aware that ignoring any illness or disease can have important consequences if they are not treated or detected on time”.
Although the mentioned causes are those that occupy the first places, they are not the only ones, since other factors also influenced not to seek health care. During 2021, as revealed by Ensanut, The third reason for not going to medical services was the possibility of contracting Covid-19. It is a latent risk that has decreased in recent months, although it does not disappear.
“If we add the risk of contagion of a disease to the cost of health and the scarcity of quality medical services, as we recently experienced with Covid-19, we have a formula that leads to situations such as self-medication, the use of home remedies or not certified, supported by intense advertising and promotion and the dismissal of potentially serious or even fatal conditions”.
The director of Soy Paciente assured that one of the great pending that organizations and institutions have is promote a culture of prevention. It should include everything from a good diet and regular physical activity to regular medical check-ups. And on the other hand, the authorities must regulate health services so that they are within the reach of the population and their pockets.
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