Organized crime threatens the safety of medical students from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) who are assigned as interns to health centers located in the Mexicali Valley.
Last semester a student was intervened and interrogated by a heavily armed group when he was driving in broad daylight on a highway in a rural area.
Upon learning of the incident, UABC reassigned the student to another area as a protection measure and to complete his internship.
SAD REALITY
José Manuel Avendaño Reyes, director of the UABC School of Medicine at the Mexicali campus, confirmed that this incident, and others, forced the search for and design for the first time a strategy to practically shield doctors in training during the next cycle school.
“This is a very sad reality throughout the country, Baja California and particularly the Mexicali Valley, is not exempt from this reality of violence and insecurity towards our interns.”
For the 2022-2 semester, the UABC assigned 60 positions for intern doctors and 30 of those positions correspond to medical units in the valley area and it is on those that a protection and surveillance scheme will focus.
The Director of the Faculty of Medicine announced that an immediate measure in the event of any episode of violence or threat, no matter how minimal, will be to remove the interns from the area, although he recognizes that this would imply leaving these health units unattended.
“We must bear in mind that when an intern is removed from a health center, many times that center is left alone and represents a real problem for the Ministry of Health and especially for the people.”
Interns who have to be removed will be reassigned to other outreach areas that are more research-inclined.
THE STRATEGY
Before the murder of Erick Andrade, a medical intern murdered in Durango, became known, the Mexicali School of Medicine had already approached the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) to request a security strategy for students who go to rural areas. .
Avendaño Reyes assured that the coordination was sought due to the experiences of the previous year.
“The contact was made in relation to some violent events that did not end badly but that did alert us last year.”
In a meeting between FGE staff and medical interns, it was agreed to monitor in real time the transfer of students to health centers through a mobile application.
A direct link to 911 was also installed on their phones, in addition to creating WhatsApp groups where security authorities and the Faculty of Medicine will be present.
“Once the boys are at their jobs, we are going to meet again to plan the routes from when they leave home until they arrive at their health center and they will be followed up in real time, if there is a delay or delay in the transfer or return we will immediately realize it, “explained the director.
The dangerous routes that exist in the Mexicali Valley were also defined, exhorting them to avoid them.
FGE staff trained medical students on how to act if approached by armed or threatened groups.
The National Association of Medical Trainees has estimated that each year up to 6,000 medical students are assigned to health centers in remote communities, places where there are generally no contracted doctors.
The organization has also documented that up to 40% of interns suffer attacks and in many cases these situations come from organized crime.