Michoacán hospital blockade over staff and supply shortages

Workers and residents blocked the road to the Hospital Comunitario Carácuaro‑Nocupétaro in Michoacán after a ten‑day administrative strike left the facility without essential staff, medicines, sterile equipment and basic services. Protesters demand improved hygiene conditions, functional laundry and laboratory areas, adequate drug supplies, air‑conditioning in extreme heat, and the removal of the hospital director Elmer Pineda Martínez and administrator Abel Chávez Ortega for alleged negligence.

The hospital, the only second‑level care center for more than 6,000 uninsured people in the Tierra Caliente region, has been operating with a crippled laundry, rodent‑infested labs, and insufficient sterile supplies, forcing patients to travel hours for basic surgeries or deliveries. Demonstrators appealed to the state health secretary and the IMSS Bienestar coordinator for immediate action to restore free, dignified medical care.