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Mexico’s Public Hospitals Add 17 Advanced MRIs and Open First Public Fetal Surgery Unit

The government says the equipment push will cut wait times and improve diagnosis across regional hospitals.

Overview

  • IMSS reported on June 30 that it has installed 17 new high‑technology MRI machines to its second‑ and third‑level hospitals, raising weekly capacity from about 80–90 studies to roughly 150.
  • The new MRI fleet includes 11 units at 1.5 tesla and six at 3 tesla, which officials say will speed scans, lower helium use and use AI to reconstruct images for clearer results.
  • IMSS‑Bienestar inaugurated the country’s first public fetal surgery unit in Villahermosa, where three fetal operations have been completed and seven more cases are in clinical protocol.
  • As part of a wider push, IMSS‑Bienestar will receive 174 high‑specialty devices in 2026–2027 at a cost of about 4,196 million pesos, and the federal government says total technology investment across public health systems is roughly 20 billion pesos.
  • Officials say recent reforms to the Ley de Adquisiciones enabled bulk direct purchases that secured 14 of the 17 MRIs in a single deal, a move intended to cut costs and bring advanced diagnostics into public hospitals so fewer patients must pay private or overseas providers.