Gómez Palacio General Hospital celebrates 4 years of neglect
The Durango Health Secretariat (SSD) has a monthly expense of 19,630 pesos for the security service of the former Gómez Palacio General Hospital building, located in the Bellavista neighborhood. Yesterday, June 21, it marked four years since it was abandoned. This includes the space that was formerly the Teaching, Research, and Human Resources department, which, since June 2022, has been occupied by the Vectors Department of Health Jurisdiction No. 2 of La Laguna.
In a request for information from this publishing house to the SSD, details were sought regarding any plans to implement it at these facilities, but no response was received. Christian Omar González Longoria, Deputy Director of Accounting and Budgeting for the State Health Services, only detailed the amount spent on surveillance, in document SSD/SPA/DA/SCP/DP/137/2025.
Eighty-one years ago, that is, since 1944, the building was initially used as a Civil Hospital and later became the SSD General Hospital. Later, in 1989 , due to the rains that hit the region, the clinic's shortcomings were exposed, and it had to be temporarily closed for a complete renovation.
Later, the hospital infrastructure proved insufficient, and the need arose to create a new hospital. This is now the New Hospital, located on Ejército Mexicano Boulevard in the Rinconada Bugambilias neighborhood. It was launched in March 2021, with a visit from former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The former hospital building was completely vacated on June 21, 2021.
On several occasions, El Siglo de Torreón has visited the site and Ciprés Pereyra Street, where the Obstetric Emergency Department was located. There is graffiti, broken glass, metal doors and gates with rusty padlocks, and foul odors.
Meanwhile, in the area where the warehouse and water tanks used to be, there are piles of garbage, smashed windows, bird droppings, and saltpeter on the walls.
A similar situation is occurring on Jesús Flores and Héroe de Nacozari streets, where even spaces such as the emergency room have been used as parking and restrooms by homeless people. Vandalism and theft of electrical wiring and equipment stored on the premises have also been reported.
At the time, former Durango governor José Rosas Aispuro Torres, a member of the National Action Party (PAN), and former Health Secretary Irasema Kondo Padilla, declared that the old building would be converted into a Mental Health Institute and even a hospital to treat the after-effects of COVID-19, such as socio-emotional issues. None of these statements materialized.
In addition, for several years the Citizens' Roundtable for Security and Justice in La Laguna de Durango has insisted on the creation of a Wellness Center for mental health care and a clinical practice space for Health Sciences students from the Juárez University of the State of Durango (UJED).
In addition, María Guadalupe García, the ninth councilor in the Gómez Palacio city council, submitted a proposal to López Obrador in 2023 for the launch of a Comprehensive Mental Health Center.
He even mentioned that staff from the National Commission on Mental Health and Addictions (Conasama) had toured the facilities and had committed to finalizing the project with the Durango government of Esteban Villegas Villarreal, since the land is state property.
However, all these intentions have not been able to materialize and the building continues to deteriorate.
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