- According to the WHO, around 23 doctors, nurses and midwives are needed for every 10,000 inhabitants, in Mexico, there are more oxxos than doctors.
- According to a report, the parent company of the businesses we know or visit, exactly there are more than 20 thousand oxxos in Mexico.
- However, there are only 2 doctors for every thousand inhabitants.
We live in a time of great competition at a professional level, or at least that is how a study carried out by the Secretary of Public Educationthrough the Undersecretary of Higher Education.
This report indicates that the panorama of newly graduated doctors is not very encouraging, because according to the latest National Survey of Occupation and Employment, 60 out of 100 Medicine graduates they cannot find a job or they cannot work in a position related to their university profile.
How many doctors are missing in Mexico?
Us missing 123 thousand doctors general and 72 thousand specialists in the country. We have 270 thousand 600 doctors and, according to international standards, we should have 393,600, reported President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
According to him FEMSA quarterly financial results report, the parent company of the businesses we know or visit, exactly there is 19 thousand 997 oxxos in Mexico.
However, there is a curious detail and that number is probably out of date while you are reading this note. The exact figure counts up to the last day of September from 2021but FEMSA estimates that they open, on average, one new store each day.
That means that they surely reached the end of the year 2021 with more than 20 thousand open oxxos.
How much is that in perspective? Well, imagine that if we divide it among the entire population of Mexico —that we are more than 126 million— It takes us about a OXXO for every 6 thousand people.
The case of doctors…
According to the WHOare needed around from 23 doctorsnurses and midwives every 10,000 population to provide essential services from health to the population.
In the case of Mexico, there are only 2 doctors for every thousand inhabitants. That is, there are more oxxos than specialist doctors.
What are the main factors influencing medical unemployment in Mexico?
According to Dr. César Calderón there are four factors:
Insufficient job offer
Formal job openings for doctors are few. There is a tendency to hire specialists and high specialists; and the need for preventive medicine and the first level of care has ceased to be seen. The formal offers they only hire specialists; and the offers that hire general practitioners are hired with unattractive salaries; or in a format “loan” in exchange for prescribing products related to pharmacies; or toasting free medical advice”, a situation that according to the definitions of the General Health Law; is a medical practice with all its responsibilities and consequences. Salaries offered by the public sector are low.
Quality of medical education
Although the private sector of medical schools and faculties it has excellent schools; there are also private schools that are just the opposite: they do not control the Quality of education that they impart Educational facilities and programs do not meet the accreditation standards of the Mexican Council for Accreditation of Medical Education (COMAEM).
This same scenario also happens in public universities. As a consequence there are thousands of general practitioners graduates without the necessary skills to practice the profession. An indicator that can bring us closer to this truth (since not all graduated general practitioners present it) is the National Examination of Applicants for Medical Residencies.
The Interinstitutional Commission for the Training of Human Resources in Health in the publication of the results of the examination, which evaluates general practitioners, applied examinations to thirty-four thousand eight hundred and seventy-four general practitioners Of which only around seven thousand eight hundred doctors entered, most of them with scores between six and seven. Being the minimum score for admission to a specialty of 5.5 – 77. Which means that the vast majority of doctors around two thousand six hundred who were left without specialty positions obtained scores below 55.
This indicator should be assumed by schools and medical schoolswho should honestly evaluate the quality of the educational programs they offer, since these general practitioners (numerically speaking) have weak basic theoretical knowledge, these doctors are mostly the ones who flood the labor market.
Unsafety
insecurity provides a prevailing factorthe events that have occurred in many places, rural communities, urban areas, the kidnappings and murders of doctors discourage coverage in these areas, it is practically impossible to start an office in private practice.
Low salaries also play a role.
To obtain a concrete answer about the payment received by doctors, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) published a study in 2021. According to the level of education, people employed as doctors and who have a bachelor’s degree receive an average monthly salary of 17,422 pesos. While those who work in health institutions are 18,675 pesos and those who provide medical services informally are 14,114 pesos.
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