The Hospital General de Mexicali has gone at least a week without specialized nutrition supplies for patients who depend on tube feeding, forcing staff to improvise with infant formula or ask families to buy their own food. Fernando Barba, a hospital nutritionist, posted the Mexicali hospital food shortage on Facebook on Monday, April 21, saying authorities have been unresponsive and patients face malnutrition.
“There is no food for the most vulnerable patients. How sad! And the authorities know nothing. We are alone,” Barba wrote. He said the hospital’s administration has passed the problem from desk to desk with no resolution. “What will the poor patients eat?”
IMSS-Bienestar Transition Created Supply Gaps Across Five Baja California Cities
The shortage traces directly to a federal policy shift that began in 2024. Mexico’s government transferred public hospitals from state health secretariats to IMSS-Bienestar, the federalized arm of IMSS (Mexico’s social security health system) designed to cover the uninsured population. In Baja California, every general hospital in Mexicali, Tijuana, Ensenada, Tecate, and Playas de Rosarito moved to federal management between 2024 and 2025.
Before the transfer, Baja California’s state health secretariat supplied the Mexicali hospital with powdered enteral nutrition packets. Staff would mix and prepare these for patients receiving food through nasogastric or gastric tubes. These patients cannot eat by mouth, often because they are intubated, recovering from surgery, or suffering neurological conditions. Without enteral formula, they face malnutrition, delayed recovery, and potentially fatal complications.
Under IMSS-Bienestar, the supply chain shifted to federal procurement. That transition has been rocky across the country, but Baja California’s hospitals have been hit especially hard. In February 2025, Barba made a similar public appeal, asking residents to donate supplies to the Mexicali hospital. At that time, he reported the facility lacked even soap and basic materials for tube-feeding preparation. Families of patients without financial resources had no way to fill the gap.
The pattern extends well beyond Mexicali. That same month, the director of the Hospital General de Ensenada suspended outpatient consultations because the pharmacy could not fill prescriptions. Earlier this year, families and patients at the Centro Oncológico Ambulatorio inside the Hospital General de Tijuana protested outside the facility after chemotherapy drugs and medications stopped arriving. Staff at hospitals in Tecate and Playas de Rosarito have reported similar equipment and supply deficits.
The scope of these shortages suggests a systemic procurement failure, not isolated mismanagement at a single facility. When five cities across one state report similar problems within months of each other, the common factor is the institutional transition itself.
Families Told to Buy Formula or Blend Chicken as a 30-Year-Old Workaround
Barba described the practical reality facing hospital staff right now. Without enteral nutrition powder, doctors have resorted to using fórmula maternizada (infant formula) to keep tube-fed patients alive. But infant formula is not designed for adult patients with complex nutritional needs. It lacks the caloric density and micronutrient balance that enteral nutrition products provide.
The alternative is worse. Barba said authorities suggested staff tell families to purchase their own powdered formula or blend chicken and vegetables into a liquid, a practice he called a 30-year step backward. “Is that what the authorities suggest? That we tell the family to buy their own powders, making them spend more, or that we blend chicken and vegetables like 30 years ago?” he wrote.
Blended food carries serious risks for tube-fed patients. It can clog feeding tubes, introduce bacteria, and deliver inconsistent nutrition. Modern enteral formulas exist precisely because blended diets caused infections and complications. Asking families to provide this food also shifts a financial burden onto people who are already in a public hospital because they cannot afford private care.
Barba called the situation a lack of respect and empathy from IMSS-Bienestar leadership. “They don’t care about the patients and they don’t care about the health workers,” he said. He invited state legislators to visit the hospital directly, saying “the hospital is falling apart.”
Mexicali Hospital Food Shortage Carries Practical Risks for Emergency Patients
The Hospital General de Mexicali is the city’s primary public hospital. It handles trauma, emergency surgery, and critical care for a metropolitan area of over one million people. Anyone involved in a serious car accident, workplace injury, or medical emergency in Mexicali may be transported there, regardless of nationality or insurance status. Private hospitals in Mexicali exist, but they require upfront payment or proof of insurance before admitting patients.
Enteral nutrition is not an optional comfort. Patients who cannot eat by mouth will deteriorate within days without it. A tube-fed patient who goes a week without proper nutrition faces muscle wasting, immune suppression, and slower wound healing. For post-surgical patients, this can mean the difference between recovery and life-threatening infection.
The shortage also raises questions about what other supplies may be missing. If a hospital cannot stock basic nutrition products, its inventory of medications, surgical supplies, and diagnostic materials may be similarly strained. Barba’s February 2025 report about missing soap supports that concern.
Barba has asked state lawmakers to intervene, though the hospital now falls under federal jurisdiction, limiting what Baja California’s legislature can do directly. No public response from IMSS-Bienestar has been reported as of April 21. The story was first reported by Punto Norte.