According to the digital edition of the newspaper, the existence of unfilled positions is a phenomenon present in the country and more so in areas such as the southern state of Chiapas, where remote rural and indigenous communities in poverty predominate.

“In these places, the operation of a health center or a basic community hospital changes the lives of people who have never had anything,” the publication added.

La Jornada visited four municipalities in the state where doctors from Cuba are rendering their services and confirmed that “wherever they work, they have made a difference due to their willingness to care for patients, even doing more than they should and regardless of where they are.”

According to the article, “this is acknowledged by their colleagues in the medical units and the state authorities of IMSS-Bienestar,” an institution in charge of providing free care to citizens without social security.

Some specialists in clinical areas were assigned to health centers in indigenous communities, others to basic community hospitals and even to general hospitals, such as the one in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, which is a state reference center, the newspaper pointed out.

The Cuban professionals “have ensured that people do not have to leave their communities for illnesses such as a respiratory or gastrointestinal infections; or if it is a basic community hospital, women can give birth there.”

Simple operations are also performed, such as appendix or gallbladder surgeries, and others, and patients do not have to travel to one of 16 general hospitals in Chiapas, which are saturated, the newspaper highlighted.

Just because of this work, the demand for services in the hospitals associated with a network of health centers and basic community hospitals strengthened with doctors and equipment was reduced by 30-40 percent in the last year, which is a step forward, the head of Health Education at IMSS-Bienestar, Guillermo Pérez, said.

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