- The IMSS was created in 1943 and for decades it was the space that offered the most medical consultations in the country.
- Currently it has been overtaken by pharmacy offices because they already provide more services per day.
- To combat the saturation of hospitals, express consultations have been used.
The basis of public health in our country is the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and for decades it was the institution that provided the most medical consultations. Although one of its problems is that it has stagnated in many aspects and has been overtaken by its competition.
Emergence of the IMSS
The IMSS was officially born on January 19, 1943 and began operations on January 1, 1944. It is a decentralized body of the Ministry of Health (SSa) and is dedicated to providing health and social security services to the population that has membership.
In addition, it is part of the International Social Security Association (ISSA), the Ibero-American Social Security Organization (OISS) and the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS), which he currently chairs.
However, the growth that the Institution has had since its inception has been uneven. To date, it has just over 60 million beneficiaries, but its elements are not enough to meet the entire demand for work.
Based on your last count, you have a health team made up of 146,000 nurses and more than 84,000 doctors. On a typical day in the IMSS Ordinary Regime, 404 thousand 118 consultations are granted, of which 303 thousand 469 are for Family Medicine, 54 thousand 335 for Specialties, 9 thousand 938 for dental and 36 thousand 916 for Emergencies.
In that sense, now the main competence of the IMSS is made up of the clinics attached to pharmacies. According to the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), economic businesses offer 325 thousand consultations per day, which means 35 thousand more than those granted by the IMSS itself.
Consultations of minimum duration that do not leave patients satisfied
Now, one of the biggest challenges that Social Security doctors face is having to deal with long working hours. The patient list is huge and the waiting rooms are always at full capacity.
Therefore, it is quite common that within the IMSS have to offer express consultations. Care should be of a minimum duration in order to serve the largest number of patients.
In fact, a doctor showed through his social networks that on a typical day specialty consultations last 10 minutes. Although it is a solution to receive a high number of patients, the problem is that the service is not always of good quality.
10 minutes Iara consult is what the system tells specialists in public hospitals, that’s why they are always in a hurry and don’t look you in the face. #imsstituto pic.twitter.com/3C9lzCwLnW
— your favorite doctor (@favoritedoctor) June 11, 2022
The biggest drawback is that the service is no longer personalized and there is no time to pay attention to all the details. The query becomes generic and there is even a danger of not fully solving the origin of the disease.
On the other hand, the problem with extending the service to offer optimal care is that a large number of patients could never be received. Therefore, in the waiting room there would be people angry because they are not received and thus a new inconvenience would be generated.