La Paz, Baja California Sur — A troubling scene unfolded this weekend at one of La Paz’s most emblematic medical facilities, revealing a level of hospital saturation that longtime residents say they have never witnessed before. Shocking images shared by journalist Leonardo Rondero show patients lying on benches, floors, and crowded hallways inside the IMSS Clinic No. 1 on 5 de Febrero Street, while dozens more waited for care both in the lobby and outside on the sidewalk.
The photos paint a stark picture: a public health system in crisis, overwhelmed by a surge of patients far beyond its operating capacity. With no hospital beds available, men and women—some elderly, others visibly injured—were forced to wait in makeshift lines or sit on hard surfaces for hours, hoping to be seen by exhausted medical staff.
This level of overcrowding, rare even in peak tourist season, underscores what many in Baja California Sur have been warning for months: the much-promoted “Denmark-style” healthcare model championed by the federal government is collapsing under real-world conditions.
What makes this moment particularly significant is that the crisis is no longer confined to IMSS-Bienestar hospitals, such as the struggling Salvatierra, where shortages of staff, supplies and medications have already sparked public outcry. Now, the strain has spread to long-respected institutions like Clinic No. 1—facilities that for decades symbolized stability and dependable care.
Health workers say the influx of patients now dramatically exceeds the clinic’s capacity, leaving sick and injured residents with virtually no privacy, no space and no guarantee of timely attention. Families wait in tight corridors. Elderly patients lean against walls. Others lie on the floor with IV lines attached—conditions far from the modern, efficient care promised by federal leaders.
The situation has reignited debate over Mexico's national healthcare strategy, raising serious questions about whether the government has the resources, staffing, or planning necessary to deliver the level of care it has advertised.
For many in La Paz, the images from Clinic No. 1 serve as a sobering reminder that the so-called “Denmark system” has fallen dramatically short—leaving some of the state’s most vulnerable residents to bear the consequences in the most painful way possible.
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