Doctors’ resignations: What does Paraguay’s Civil Service Law say?

A mass resignation wave among doctors in Paraguay has collided with the bureaucracy of the country’s new public-service rules. Specialists from major hospitals, including San Pablo, Coronel Oviedo, Ciudad del Este and the National Hospital of Itauguá, are among those leaving or attempting to leave.

Doctors say roughly 190 resignations have been submitted, with at least 200 more in process. The Ministry of Public Health gives a sharply different figure: 62 resignations had formally reached its registry by midday, and more than half did not comply with the required procedure.

Sebastián Britez, coordinator of the Neonatology Department at the Maternal and Children’s Hospital of Trinidad, submitted his resignation alongside those of 14 colleagues at the Health Ministry. Medical workers accuse the ministry’s central administration of trying to conceal the scale of the crisis by rejecting documents that were not filed through the official registry in the capital, carried scanned signatures or bore the signature of only one representative.

The dispute turns on Article 56 of Paraguay’s Law No. 7445/2025 on the Public Function and Civil Service. It requires a public employee’s resignation to be made in writing and expressly accepted by the institution. Yet the law does not clearly specify where doctors must submit their resignations.

The law also states that a resignation is considered tacitly accepted if the competent authority does not respond within 10 working days of its formal submission. A resignation does not, however, stop an administrative disciplinary case involving alleged serious misconduct. Such proceedings continue until they establish administrative responsibility.