IMSS Delivers More Services in 2025, but Falls Short of Targets

Mexico’s Social Security Institute (IMSS) reported delivering 14 million more medical services in 2025 than in the previous year, citing gains in surgeries and consultations under a productivity strategy, while acknowledging it did not fully meet the service targets it set for the year.

Zoé Robledo, Director General, IMSS, says the institute performed 1.78 million surgeries in 2025, representing a 29% increase compared with 2024 and roughly 90% of the 2 million procedures initially planned. “The increase forms part of a strategy to expand care capacity and reduce waiting times, without compromising quality or safety,” said Robledo during a morning press conference.

According to figures presented by IMSS, the institute fell short of its annual surgical target by about 220,000 procedures. Specialty consultations also rose but did not fully reach planned levels. IMSS reports a 22% increase in specialty consultations compared with 2024, achieving about 98% of its target of 30 million visits, or roughly 700,000 consultations fewer than planned.

Robledo frames the results as part of a broader recovery effort following the disruption of healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly reduced elective procedures and routine care across the public system. He says the increase in activity contributed to addressing accumulated backlogs, even as structural constraints continued to limit capacity.

The only area in which IMSS exceeded its annual goal was primary care. Family medicine consultations reached 104 million in 2025, surpassing the target of 100 million and representing a 21% increase compared with 2018 levels, when the institute recorded 85.7 million visits. Robledo says the growth reflected organizational changes rather than temporary measures.

These figures were presented against a backdrop of sustained pressure on Mexico’s public healthcare system. Demand continues to rise due to population aging and the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, while supply remains constrained by workforce shortages, infrastructure gaps, and fiscal limits. According to international estimates, healthcare and life sciences employers are among the sectors most affected by labor scarcity, with the World Health Organization (WHO) warning of a potential global shortfall of 11 million healthcare workers by 2030.

IMSS attributes the higher service volumes in 2025 to a combination of workforce expansion, operational reorganization, and infrastructure investment. Robledo says hiring additional medical specialists and reorganizing service schedules was central to the strategy. The institute expanded afternoon and weekend shifts, and in some cases nighttime operations, particularly in family medicine units. IMSS reports the creation of more than 17,500 additional consultation slots through these measures.

According to IMSS, these changes also contributed to shorter waiting times for certain high-demand procedures. Cataract surgeries increased by 25% in 2025, while the average waiting period between diagnosis and surgery was reduced by 12 days. Gallbladder surgeries rose 15%, cutting waiting times by 10 days, and hip surgeries increased 16%, adding nearly 1,400 procedures compared with the previous year.

Robledo says that, compared with 2018, IMSS now performs about 60% more surgeries annually, equivalent to roughly 670,000 additional procedures. He notes that surgical volumes had been declining between 2012 and 2018, before reversing course in recent years. Specialty consultations show one of the strongest recoveries after the pandemic. IMSS reports delivering about 10 million more specialty visits annually than in 2018, an increase of 48%.

Internal medicine, traumatology and orthopedics, and general surgery were among the specialties with the highest growth in 2025. IMSS says 10 major specialty categories, which together account for about half of all specialty consultations, recorded average growth of 52% compared with the previous year.

Despite these gains, the institute acknowledges that capacity constraints remain. Robledo says the 2025 results demonstrated progress but also highlighted the gap between performance and system needs. For 2026, IMSS set higher targets, including 2.1 million surgeries, 32.8 million specialty consultations and 108 million family medicine visits.

The operational challenges IMSS faces mirror broader pressures across the healthcare and life sciences sector. According to industry surveys, 77% of employers worldwide in healthcare and life sciences report difficulty finding skilled talent, making it the sector most affected by labor shortages. At the same time, cost pressures and uneven adoption of digital tools continue to shape organizational decisions.

Technology is increasingly viewed as a lever to expand capacity, but implementation remains uneven. Industry groups project wider use of remote patient monitoring, wearable devices, and AI in 2026, supporting earlier detection of health changes, chronic disease management, and administrative efficiency. However, healthcare organizations continue to report gaps between planned investment in AI and its practical use, particularly in clinical workflows and workforce management.

In Mexico, these technological and operational challenges intersect with ongoing reforms to medicine procurement and supply chains. The federal government is working to consolidate health purchases for the public sector under state-owned Laboratorios de Biológicos y Reactivos de México (Birmex) by 2030, positioning the company as the central purchaser and distributor of medicines and medical supplies for IMSS, IMSS-Bienestar, and ISSSTE. Authorities say the strategy aims to stabilize supply, improve coordination, and strengthen domestic pharmaceutical production.

IMSS officials have linked service delivery capacity to medicine availability, noting that procurement failures can disrupt care even when clinical staff and infrastructure are in place. Recent tenders have faced delays and cancellations, contributing to supply uncertainty for key therapies such as insulin, oncology drugs, and antihypertensives.

Within hospitals, logistics, and medication management remain another constraint. Marco Alva, Director General, Healthcare Motion Corp, says inefficiencies in hospital pharmacies can lead to waste through expired drugs, overstocking, and handling errors. He says automation and unit-dose systems can reduce medication consumption and costs by an estimated 20% to 40%, allowing hospitals to reallocate limited resources. Such efficiencies are particularly relevant in the public sector, where medications are provided at no direct cost to patients.

Mexico’s health authorities are also pursuing agreements to expand national medicine production. A recent cooperation framework involving the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation, Birmex, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) aims to strengthen production at the Central de Mezclas facility in Tlalpan, which manufactures oncology drugs, antibiotics, and parenteral nutrition. Officials say aligning scientific development with public health needs is essential, as the country faces an epidemiological transition requiring simultaneous responses to infectious and chronic diseases.

Underlying these operational efforts is a sustained rise in demand. Official data show hypertension among Mexican adults increased from 34.1% in 2018 to 47.8% in 2022, while diabetes prevalence rose from 14.4% to 18.3% over the same period. These trends are expected to drive continued growth in demand for consultations, diagnostics and long-term treatment within IMSS and other public institutions.

Against this backdrop, IMSS’s 2025 figures provide a snapshot of incremental capacity gains rather than a resolution of systemic constraints. The institute’s acknowledgment that it did not meet all its targets underscores the scale of unmet demand and the limits of operational adjustments in a system under sustained pressure. Whether IMSS can translate higher reported activity into consistent access, shorter waits, and improved outcomes, while meeting its more ambitious 2026 goals, remains a central question for Mexico’s public healthcare system.