Visits and Surgeries at Mexico's Public Hospitals Are Up as Much as 60% in Two Years
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Officials credit a shift from private care to the public system: 32 new hospitals and the 2023 IMSS Bienestar network now serving 56 million across 24 states.

This article by Néstor Jiménez and Arturo Sánchez originally appeared in the August 18, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The country’s three public health institutions, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), and the IMSS Bienestar system, have increased over the last two years both general consultation services and specialty consultations and scheduled surgeries, with increases ranging from 28 to 60 percent, Eduardo Clark García Dobarganes, Undersecretary of Sectoral Integration and Development of the Secretariat of Health, stated this Tuesday.

When presenting a review of the care provided by the federal public medical services, the federal official explained that, adding together the IMSS, ISSSTE, and the care in the 24 states that today are part of IMSS Bienestar, there is an upward trend.

“That means that instead of going to the private sector, well, they are going to the public system; that instead of waiting, because perhaps the waiting times were very long and they no longer got care, well now they are being cared for in the public system,” President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo emphasized, recalling that under her government there are 32 new hospitals operating in the country.

She reaffirmed that by the end of this year there will be 39 new hospitals, in addition to those that existed at the start of her government, although she clarified that many of them were already under construction at the close of the previous six-year term.

As part of the report presented by Eduardo Clark García, the official indicated that, regarding general consultations, they increased by 28 percent when comparing the January-July 2022 period with that of the present year. While in 2022 there were 78.9 million consultations, this year more than 101.2 million consultations were surpassed in that period.

In the case of specialty consultations, the increase was greater, with 60 percent more consultations. In the January-July 2022 period there were 19.7 million specialty consultations, while this year there were 31.7 million.

Regarding scheduled surgeries, while in 2022 there were 1,450,000, this year 30 percent more were recorded, with 1,887,000.

In this regard, President Sheinbaum Pardo highlighted the increase in care mainly at IMSS Bienestar, created in 2023 to serve people without social security, who were previously under the administration of state governments.

“Here it is demonstrated that it is better to go to IMSS Bienestar than to remain in the states’ public services.”

Claudia Sheinbaum

This was because the eight states that are not yet part of this system had a smaller percentage increase in consultations than the growth of the states with the federalized system.

If all the states had kept their own health systems, they would not have grown in the number of consultations, the head of the federal Executive affirmed.

“They are very clear indicators that IMSS Bienestar favors people’s health care. That ‘there is still room to improve,’ always, there is always room for improvement, but today there are already more medicines and people are being cared for, 90 percent, that is, almost double the consultations in the 24 states that are part of IMSS Bienestar. We are moving forward,” she stressed.

Alejandro Svarch Pérez at the presidential morning press conference

Alejandro Svarch Pérez, director general of IMSS-Bienestar, during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s press conference from the National Palace. Photo: Germán Canseco

For his part, Alejandro Svarch Pérez, director general of IMSS Bienestar, noted that this system now operates in 24 states, to serve 56 million people without social security through 10,761 medical units.

He explained that, compared with the previous model, in which each state operated its own system, in many cases with payments in order to provide care, today it is a single integrated network with the same medical model, with no charge for care.

Since 2024, when the unified model came into full operation, care doubled. The states that are not yet joined maintain the same inertia, “without significant growth,” in contrast to the states where IMSS Bienestar already operates. “They are verifiable and auditable data,” he stressed.

And regarding specialty consultations, the contrast “is more forceful.”

Meanwhile, Zoé Roblero, director general of the IMSS, said that in the January-July 2026 period there were 1.1 million surgeries performed; 19.7 million specialty consultations, and 64.9 million general consultations. Surgeries increased by 36 percent compared with the January-July 2024 period; specialty consultations increased by 37 percent, due to the hiring of more specialist physicians, and family-medicine care rose by 12 percent.

He added that the care of 10,317,000 emergencies has been reported at the IMSS, of which the main one is trauma resulting from accidents linked to motorcycle use.

Martí Batres, director general of the ISSSTE, added that surgeries at this institute increased by 8 percent.

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