Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff from three northern Baja California municipalities marched through Tijuana on May 1, chanting against President Claudia Sheinbaum and calling IMSS Bienestar, Mexico’s federalized public health system, a fraud. The IMSS Bienestar Tijuana protest drew workers from Tijuana, Tecate, and Playas de Rosarito who say they have not received bonuses or uniforms and are buying medical supplies out of pocket to treat patients.
The march began at the Monumento a Lázaro Cárdenas on Paseo de los Héroes. Workers then walked along Boulevard Cuauhtémoc Norte to Hospital General de Tijuana, where they shouted slogans demanding federal action. Their union leader, Alejandrina Vázquez Espinoza of SNTSA (the national health workers’ union) Section 24, said the public health system in Baja California is on the verge of collapse. She said workers have received no federal response since 2024.
2022 Centralization Stripped Hospitals From State Control
IMSS Bienestar was created in 2022 under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Its purpose was to centralize care for Mexico’s uninsured population, people who lack coverage through IMSS (Mexico’s social security health system for formal workers) or ISSSTE (the equivalent system for government employees). Under the program, municipal general hospitals and health clinics that state health departments once operated were transferred to federal control.
That transfer moved budget authority to Mexico City. Miguel Bernardo Romero Flores, IMSS Bienestar’s coordinator in Baja California, told union leaders he lacks the power to allocate funds locally. All spending decisions flow through the capital. Before the transition, supply shortages existed but at lower levels. Vázquez Espinoza said hospitals previously received 80% to 90% of needed supplies. Now there are no delivery schedules and no guarantee of any fixed percentage.
The crisis has spread across the state. In Mexicali, doctors at Hospital General asked the public for donated food in 2025 because the institution could not feed patients requiring specialized diets through feeding tubes. In Ensenada, Hospital General’s director suspended outpatient consultations due to a lack of medications. At Tijuana’s Hospital General, families and patients at the Centro Oncológico Ambulatorio have protested separately over canceled chemotherapy treatments.
November 2025 Strike by 2,322 Workers Produced No Resolution
The May 1 march is not the first action. In November 2025, a total of 2,322 medical workers across Tijuana, Tecate, and Playas de Rosarito staged a full work stoppage. Their demands were identical: unpaid bonuses, missing uniforms, and absent medical supplies. The uniform bonus alone represented 7 million pesos (roughly $385,000 USD) for the three municipalities combined. That strike ended without a resolution from the federal government.
In July 2025, two Morena party legislators on the federal Chamber of Deputies’ Health Commission, Pedro Zenteno Santaella and Fernando Castro Trenti, announced they would tour IMSS and IMSS Bienestar hospitals in Baja California. Vázquez Espinoza said neither lawmaker ever visited Hospital General de Tijuana. Instead, they held closed-door meetings with hospital directors at what was then the Jurisdicción Sanitaria (now called the Distrito de Salud) in Tijuana. Union workers were not invited, and no results were shared.
Nurse Martina Camacho told reporters she has not received bonus payments or uniform allowances since November. She continues working. Staff described pooling personal money to buy supplies for patients who are homeless or too poor to purchase their own medications.
Broken Equipment and No New Hires at Tijuana Hospitals
Workers at the march listed specific infrastructure failures. Elevators at Hospital General de Tijuana are broken. X-ray machines are out of service. No new staff positions have been authorized, so existing employees absorb growing patient loads without relief.
If you live in Tijuana, Rosarito, or Tecate and have ever been directed to Hospital General for emergency care, imaging, or specialist referrals, this is the system you would enter. Private hospitals and clinics remain operational, but they charge fees that many residents cannot afford. The public system handles trauma cases, cancer treatment, and chronic disease management for people without private insurance.
Anyone involved in a traffic accident or medical emergency on Baja California’s toll roads or city streets may be transported to an IMSS Bienestar facility by default. With X-ray machines down and supply shortages ongoing, the capacity of these hospitals to deliver timely care is in question.
The union has not announced a date for a follow-up strike, but Vázquez Espinoza made clear that workers will escalate if federal authorities continue to ignore them. The federal government has not issued a public response to the May 1 march. This story was first reported by Punto Norte.