On Tuesday, Mexican health officials announced that the country’s grossly underequipped public hospital system would use more traditional medicine and Cuban physicians.
The leader of Mexico’s largest public hospital network, Zoe Robledo, announced during a news conference that the organization will hire 753 massage therapists and herbalists.
The Social Security Administration will also employ “curanderos,” who are unlicensed healers who utilize bundles of herbs, smoke, alcohol, and eggs to “draw” disease from their patients’ bodies.
At the news conference, Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer stated, “Due to traditional medicine, mankind has been able to overcome dangers to their bodily, emotional, and spiritual health.” According to The Associated Press, hospitals and clinics will also employ midwives and practitioners of conventional chiropractic therapy.
They will apparently not necessarily be licensed professionals. According to a statement from the office of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, they will instead “base treatment on ancient knowledge.”
The scheme will also strive to double the roughly 600 Cuban physicians who have been given employment in Mexico. While many hospitals in Mexico lack qualified physicians — particularly in rural or violence-plagued areas — the country’s health care system suffers far more severe shortages of drugs, hospitals, and equipment.
Frequently, families of patients must look for medications, surgical supplies, and donated blood in order to provide the necessary treatment for their loved ones. Decades of underinvestment in the health care system are primarily responsible for this situation.
