Mexico's Healthcare Professionals Rise Up to Denounce System on Social Networks Frontera NorteSur
go to original July 22, 2014

A doctor holds a banner during a protest in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on June 22, 2014.  (Xinhua/Pedro Mera)

A new social movement erupting in Mexico this summer is exposing the long-running deficiencies in the nation’s public healthcare system.

Led by #YoSoy17 and #YoSoy Medico 17, the movement began as a reaction to legal charges filed against 16 Guadalajara doctors for alleged medical negligence in the death of a 15-year-old patient, Roberto Gallardo, who was treated at a Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) hospital during 2009-2010.

Since last month, when tens of thousands of doctors and their supporters took to the streets in cities across the country in a protest against the Guadalajara prosecutions, the movement has turned social media into a whistle-blowing platform.

Healthcare professionals are using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to post videos and commentaries, publish damning photos and issue communiqués. The messages report widespread shortages of medicines and supplies, abusive work schedules, ill-treatment of patients, low salaries, and medical schooling problems.

The denunciation of an abandoned hospital in the state of Oaxaca, where many people have to travel hours to receive medical attention, caught the public eye.

In some ways the issues raised by #YoSoy17 are very similar to the controversies enveloping Department of Veterans Affairs’ hospitals in the United States.

Read the rest at Mexidata.info

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