- A study determined that the IMSS is the public health institution that takes the longest.
- Currently half of Mexicans are affiliated with the IMSS.
- Due to the long waiting times, many beneficiaries prefer to go to pharmacy offices.
Since its foundation more than seven decades ago, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) has positioned itself as a leader in our country. To date, it serves half the population, therefore its workload is too much. As a consequence, service may not always be immediate. While the waiting time for a medical consultation is one of the main complaints of patients.
Brief history of IMSS
To begin with, on January 19, 1943, the President of the Republic, Manuel Ávila Camacho, signed the decree with which this great institution was born. Although it was actually until September 13, 1950 when it was inaugurated its emblematic central building located at Paseo de la Reforma No. 476, in the Juárez neighborhood of Mexico City. This building was built by the architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia, great-grandson of Benito Juárez.
From the beginning, the IMSS has been a decentralized body of the Mexican federal government sectored to the Ministry of Health (SSa). Its function is to provide health and social security services to the population that has affiliation.
Work done during the pandemic
Regarding its infrastructure, to date it has 1,530 Family Medicine Units (UMF)250 Second Level care hospitals, nine Ambulatory Care Medical Units (UMAA) and 25 High Specialty Medical Units (UMAE).
Regardless of the current pandemic, IMSS has kept most of its services open for the benefit of citizens. Compared to last year, Family Medicine consultations increased by 12,315,476; 3 million 654 thousand 705 specialty consultations, one million 835 thousand 119 emergency consultations, 181 thousand 005 surgical interventions and 560 thousand 063 hospital discharges.
How long should you wait to go to the office?
However, a drawback that has persisted within the public sector for decades is the waiting time to enter a medical consultation. In order to receive care, it is necessary to stay outside the office for hours due to the high number of patients and the few doctors that exist.
In order to have a clear idea of the problem, the Center for Economic and Budgetary Research (CIEP) prepared the document entitled Universal Health System: Coverage and financing challenges.
The research made a comparison between the different institutions that exist in our country. What showed that the waiting time for attention in the IMSS is equivalent to 2.9 times more than that of other institutions, including private ones.
With this in mind, the average wait time for a doctor visit is 91 minutes. In addition, it is mentioned that even with recent programs such as unifila or making an appointment through the mobile app it has been possible to expedite the service.
Although doctors are often blamed, in reality they are the least guilty. Doctors always do their best but they can’t handle such a heavy workload. Another option is to resort to express medical consultations to serve the largest number of people in the shortest possible time. But the negative part is that the quality of the service is not the best.
The foregoing has also influenced clinics attached to pharmacies to gain patients in recent years. Many beneficiaries prefer to pay for the service instantly instead of having to wait within the public sector.