They would recover the psychiatric hospital in Yucatan

For the second time, Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena offered to recover and dignify the Psychiatric Hospital of Yucatán , after visiting and corroborating the poor conditions in which the patients are found.

According to him, they would start by building some warehouses where they could temporarily move them, although he did not say when.

“We are going to build new areas so that we can accommodate the mentally ill. (In the psychiatric hospital) we found them without air conditioning, without fans, with very old beds, worn mattresses, with overcrowding, and this is unacceptable.”

"We have to do something to change this reality. They are human beings and have dignity," he said.

For the second time, he also referred to the Transition Villages, which the government of the PRI member Rolando Zapata Bello built and his successor, the PAN member Mauricio Vila Dosal, abandoned.

Today, part of these facilities was donated to the State Audit Office for its offices.

The governor said he visited the site on Monday and found that despite the presence of security personnel guarding the area, the building was ransacked and equipment stolen, so he also offered to rescue the site.

According to Díaz Mena, it was a sin of omission by the previous government not to have made these facilities available to the population.

Since December 30, 2024, the newspaper published a report in the State Congress by Deputy Larisa Acosta Escalante, from MC , about the terrible conditions in which this hospital operates, which she described as “a place with little light, full of cockroaches and mosquitoes, broken walls, beds without divisions, lack of medicines and food. A constant violation of human rights, where patients are treated like animals.”

The first time the governor referred to this issue was last Thursday, February 20, when in an official statement from his government it was said that he visited these facilities to learn about their condition and the needs of that institution, as part of the vision to strengthen health services in the entity.

The night before last, in his weekly broadcast, this time accompanied by scout Samuel Alexis Chan Novelo, governor for a day, among the issues addressed he dedicated a part to this psychiatric hospital issue, commenting that part of his activities that day was to visit that hospital and the Transition Villages again.

Rovers Chan Novelo , recalling this visit, commented: “It was a tour of a facility that really has quite a few expectations for creating something new in the south.”

“It was incredible to see the facilities and their condition. I trust that the place will be restored very soon and will be splendid for the entire community that needs it.”

Díaz Mena added that “we are going to recover this psychiatric hospital, we are going to dignify it and we reiterate our commitment to the well-being of our citizens. The mentally ill are not alone, we are here to support them .”

The president announced that warehouses will be built where a team of nurses and psychiatrists will care for and monitor patients, while the necessary improvements are made to the current facilities.

"We cannot continue to ignore this situation. It is a sin of omission not to have put this hospital at the service of the Yucatecans," he added.

Regarding the Transition Villas, which were a complement to the treatment of psychiatric patients, he recalled that "during the previous government (of Zapata Bello), a new psychiatric hospital and some villas were built where the inmates were to be."

"The outgoing government (of Vila Dosal), we do not know the reason, never started this new psychiatric hospital, it never put itself at the service of the Yucatecans and we visited it."

“The ceilings that have soffits have already fallen down, they collapsed, we saw a relatively new building because it is six years old , but due to lack of use it has deteriorated,” he explained.

The governor also regretted that “with a security company watching, they stole all the equipment from an electricity generating plant, important equipment that the facilities require, and unfortunately they took it away.”

These are very heavy pieces of equipment; two people cannot carry them. The security company should have been aware of this and allowed the thieves to enter and loot this hospital that has never been used in the past six years.

"We cannot continue to ignore this situation, looking the other way, kicking the can down the road," he said.