In an interview for MILLENNIUMSalvador Chavarría Vázquez, general director of the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Coahuila (UAC) Torreón Unit, as well as the General University Hospital, the University Children’s Hospital and the Biomedical Research Center, offer their point of view on the mobilizations carried out by Intern Doctors of the Social Service (MPSS) after the assassination of Erick Andrade Ramírez in El Salto, Pueblo Nuevo, Durango, where he did his social work.
In the Faculty of Medicine, higher studies are made up of five years of academic process, one year of internship and the seventh year, which is of Social Service, which the students carry out in locations that the Ministry of Health establishes through a Inter-institutional Commission for the Formation of Human Resources for Health (CIFRHS)), while the directors of the faculties only contribute with the graduates of each generation.
Chavarría Vázquez points out that Coahuila is listed as a state with very low insecurity rates, which benefits interns. However, he agrees that it is necessary to modify the Regulatory Law of Article 5 of the Constitution, as well as the Official Mexican Standard, NOM-009-SSA3-2013, Health Education.
In Coahuila, are there risk areas for social service intern doctors?
The risk is latent for all activities, there will be one more dangerous than others, but the internship, I think there are conditions to carry it out in Coahuila, that’s what I consider.
It is fought again if, for a modification, to repeal or to make modifications of the constitutional five and in the Mexican Official Norm NOM-009 if some repeals or modifications should be introduced that are of benefit to the seventh year student, especially in the academic area, because there are places that are safe, but there are also shortcomings, which they asserted in a petition, where they are demanding that there be much more favorable conditions that include security, but they are in infrastructure, comfort and communication.
Young people are now very connected and there has to be internet, but they are sometimes very distant populations that do not meet that possibility.
What percentage of interns is sent to a Rural Medicine Unit where they are responsible and lack infrastructure and supplies?
Those field areas may be in the range of 20%, they may be at that level of attention where it is the intern who has to act, he is the only one who has to be at the headquarters.
Are the students aware that by doing their social service they will be able to face a complicated scenario?
Yes, they are prepared to solve health problems, I think that what they have shown is greater solvency, greater commitment, it has been said by them. As for the safety environment, they demand an infrastructure that allows them to carry out their professional activity with higher quality and we recognize that there should be university participation in the State Health Secretariat. Given the murder of the intern, Erick Andrade Ramírez, Salvador Chavarría Vázquez, pointed out that up to now there is no record of another similar situation. He described the case of the young medical intern as unfortunate and sad, for which they sympathize with the family and the Autonomous University of Durango (UAD) where he was a student.
What do you think about the manifestations of the intern doctors and that they contemplated amparos?
I agree, I support it and I participated in the march as a solidarity situation, I am a doctor and I lived it, the times force a reconstruction, a reform of what social service is and it must be in the interest of all the actors, as states, federation and students, as well as the CIFRHS and there must be recommendations for a modification, since since 2013 there have been no changes in the Official Mexican Standard 009.
Later, with more time, insert it as an initiative to change the 5th Constitution in the regulatory law, in sections 80 and 84 so that it is legal. The marches are immediate measures of pressure, of a “here I am”, “I want you to see me”, which is valid, because the authority has to commit itself, so that social work is carried out with dignity. After the mobilizations of the medical interns to demand better security conditions, infrastructure and supply of supplies in the places where they were assigned, the Ministry of Health established agreements with the students in accordance with the petition, so it was that last Monday, the first of Social Service was reactivated in August.
The commitments were the modification of the infrastructure, granting them some comforts, as well as the commitment with the municipalities to strengthen the surveillance patrols and provide them with the supplies to comply with the Social Service.
CALE