Opens with shelves and half-empty spaces.

This Friday, the opening of the “Mega Pharmacy of Wellbeing” was held with great enthusiasm from officials and applause from guests. However, this was again a half-hearted implementation, with the promise that it would soon benefit Mexicans and that shortages would end.

The megapharmacy in Huehuetaca, Mexico, which the president’s voice superlatively described as “perhaps the largest in the world,” began stocking 18,000 medications that together barely filled the few shelves located in some pharmacies. The spaces of the complex still look huge and empty.

The mega pharmacy opened by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is designed to deliver any medicines that are in short supply in the country’s hospitals or health centers, but until yesterday there were no vehicles specifically designed to transport the drugs.

It was noticeable that the warehouse was not supplied even at 20% of its actual capacity, and there were about twenty employees who would be responsible for receiving calls that could be made by more than 90 million social security citizens with a prescription. not filled. .

The area of ​​the territory is 45 hectares, nine of which are covered. A dry network warehouse with an area of ​​5,500 meters is allocated, designed for storing biological materials that can be stored at room temperature.

The warehouse, now painted white, gives off a healthy feel. It’s cold and lonely here because, despite its large size, you can barely see a dozen employees; some clean, others register medications, others store.

The warehouse has six batteries of racks, each of which has a retractable length of 102 meters, seven high-rise and five-level, with a load capacity of up to 1600 kilograms. However, almost 80% of the shelves appear unoccupied.

On the first day of operation, the megapharmacy recorded the receipt of 18 thousand pieces of medicine, although it is expected that it will have 1438 keys, that is, all the medicines in the world.

After the inauguration, the president’s team allowed citizens to tour the facilities: “Old man, you’re a bully,” one man shouted at the president, while another said, “This will burn PRIAN, let them take Vitacilin.”

The warehouse premises are already certified by Cofepris and have sanitary measures, a network of fire extinguishers, emergency exits and the entire floor is filled with epoxy resin, which complies with international sanitary measures.

In the same room there is an area dedicated to a cold network for storing highly specialized drugs and drugs that require low temperatures; There are eight refrigerators and three mega-freezers, but they are mostly empty.

Likewise, medicines must go through the control and registration zone. Another building houses the Command, Communications, Control and Intelligence Center, which has a call center with 20 operators who will receive calls from IMSS, ISSSTE and IMSS-Bienestar beneficiaries who are unable to fill their prescriptions. In the first three hours, 200 calls were received.

Carolina, one of the telephone operators, explained that in three hours she received requests for eight prescriptions from the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and the state of Mexico.

He noted that his job is to listen to the beneficiary, check with CURP and ID that he has a medical prescription, ensure that the drug is not available in his clinic, look for its existence in other clinics and hospitals in the same area and send him there.

If the medicine is not found, the megapharmacy asks to send the medicine to the appropriate clinic, which should arrive within no more than 48 hours.

The rest of the megapharmacy area is occupied by 197 platforms, of which 97 are landing platforms and 98 are reception platforms. The total storage capacity is 286 million, but until opening day, 100% of the sites remained empty.

“We still believe in you, we still think we will have a better Mexico,” a woman shouted at President Lopez Obrador during the announcement.

For the President and those who work at Mega Pharmacy of Wellbeing, this new strategy represents a complete transformation of Mexico’s health care system; However, this actually seems like a huge problem that needs to be solved.