Sheinbaum Hears Cancer Patients’ Families as Medicine Shortages Surface in Chetumal

Chetumal, Quintana Roo — President Claudia Sheinbaum toured public hospitals in Chetumal and walked straight into complaints about medicine shortages, after relatives of cancer patients told her that chemotherapy drugs are running short at the state oncology hospital.

Unlike previous visits, the president moved through the Hospital Materno Infantil Morelos and the construction site of the new General Hospital with little security fanfare, allowing residents to approach her for photographs, congratulations and complaints about the lack of medicines and medical staff.

As she left the maternal and children’s hospital, family members of cancer patients stopped her. They said their problems began when treatment was transferred to the Oncology Hospital.

“We were in the little egg-shaped building that used to be oncology at the General Hospital, and we never went without medicine, president,” they told her. “But lately we are seeing that chemotherapy is lacking here at the Oncology Hospital.”

Sheinbaum turned to an aide traveling with her. “Let’s see, Alejandro, come here,” she said, before asking: “Where? Here? What medicines? Because what we understand is that we have all the medicines here.”

When the relatives pressed the complaint, the president asked who had told them. “There are mothers, sisters and wives who have been saying this for months,” they replied.

“That is what we came for,” Sheinbaum said.

A Tour With Open Access

The president arrived in Chetumal at around 1 p.m. and, accompanied by Governor Mara Lezama, inspected the Hospital Materno Infantil Morelos before heading to the wellbeing unit in the Payo Obispo neighborhood to check on its operations.

Social media users circulated claims that staff had delivered medicines and equipment to the unit hours before the visit, suggesting the site was being presented as fully stocked.

Later in the day, Sheinbaum led a session of the State Health Council to assess conditions in the state’s health system and, above all, to address the complaints that have emerged in recent weeks over shortages of medicines.