Chihuahua.- The state of Chihuahua has a medical personnel deficit of 9,234 doctors. This is because it has a total of 1,866 general and specialty doctors to care for a population of 3.7 million inhabitants.
However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), for optimal care there should be at least 3 doctors per thousand inhabitants, while in countries like Norway there are up to five doctors per thousand inhabitants.
Statistics provided by the federal Ministry of Health, presented through Data Mexico, indicate that Chihuahua has a total of 1,866 doctors. Of this total, 44.2% are general practitioners, that is, a total of 825.
As regards specialties, paediatricians are the ones responsible for the care of children. They represent 8.68% of doctors, with a total of 162 of them. They are followed by anaesthetists, who total 132, which is 7.07% of the total number of doctors.
Likewise, unspecified physicians account for 7.61% with a total of 142 physicians. As for the different specialties that exist, from highest to lowest presence, they are: gynecologists, obstetricians, 109; general and specialized surgeons, 92; internists, 74; emergency physicians, 22; oncologists 21 and cardiologists 18, among others. In this sense, pulmonologists are the specialists with the fewest, since there are only 6 of them, as well as gastroenterologists and endocrinologists.
These data regarding human resources in the health sector also indicate that the majority of them, 66.2 percent, are working in state hospitals, while 33.8 percent are working in medical units.
Doctors are mostly distributed in urban areas, and the largest number of them are in the city of Chihuahua, which has a total of 647 doctors. In Ciudad Juárez there are only 383, while in Cuauhtémoc there are 163, in Parral 130, in Camargo 59 and in Jiménez 48.
Some municipalities have only one doctor to care for the population. This is the case of Uruachi, Coyame and Manuel Benavides, while there are some with 2 or 3 doctors. Meanwhile, places such as Cusihuiriachi and Belisario Domínguez do not have any doctors.
According to the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Chihuahua is at a deficit level, although it meets the minimum requirements for health care. However, compared to other countries, it has up to three fewer doctors per thousand inhabitants.
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