Basic hospital for Metlatónoc, broken promise

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By. Jose C. Serrano

Metlatonoc is a municipality in the state of Guerrero, whose majority population belongs to the Mixtec ethnic group, and is among the eight poorest municipalities in the Mexican Republic.

The municipality is part of the Mountain Region. Surrounded by abrupt hills, the communication between the localities of this one and the rest of the country is extremely complicated; The gateway to the Mixtec area of ​​Guerrero is the city of Tlapa de Comonfortlocated 75 kilometers away that are traveled in an average of three hours on the way.

The extreme poverty that was installed in this municipality since ancient times, is coupled with the absence of basic health units to care for the sick population and prevent, as far as possible, endemic illnesses linked to the scourge of misery.

In the community there is a health center that exhibits undisguisable deficiencies and abandonment. Residents who go to see a doctor are treated in a broken ambulance or outside the health facility, because there are no clinics, they are all flooded due to leaks that are not corrected, because there is no money for waterproofing. The patio is an alternative space for consultations, even when suffering from inclement weather.

Despite all the adverse circumstances, doctors and other health professionals do not stop working. Sometimes, patients are transferred to Tlapa; some make it to the emergency room alive, but there are others who do not: children, adults, and pregnant women die in the attempt.

In 2021, they moved part of the medical equipment and healing materials to the municipal market on a temporary basis. That year the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador He was visiting Metlatónoc and, in a hasty meeting, he promised to build a basic hospital in the municipality.

Residents of the place affirm that in seven years a swarm of officials have met in that direction just to take the photo, but they do not solve the problem.

In October 2021, during the visit of the president Lopez Obrador to the municipality, he met with officials at the secondary school and there they were talking; she did not receive the townspeople and did not visit the health center. Where was your saying that the poor come first?, they wonder.

There is documented evidence of the lack of maintenance of the sanitary unit: water leaks and deficient operation of the electrical and drainage systems, as well as specialist doctors, supplies and various materials. Several areas are unusable

Some news media have publicized the deplorable conditions in which the Metlatónoc health center is located and a serious shortage of equipment and supplies to care for the population that requires them. In response, the government of Guerrero, headed by the Morenista Evelyn Salgado PinedaLately, he delivered almost 40,000 pieces of surgical and healing material to those in charge of the hospital.

Among the supplies received are gloves for surgery, bandages, gauze, adhesive tapes, microporous tapes, surgical clothing, injection syringes and blood extraction.

Residents of the municipality prevented state government employees from carrying out the waterproofing of the health unit, because it has already been done four times and did not work. They demanded that the central demand be fulfilled, that is, build a new hospital. The town donated three hectares of land for the work to be built.

The response to this social demand must come from the National Palace and the Government House of Guerrero, headquarters occupied by Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Evelyn Salgado Pinedarespectively.