Peña touts health achievements and 2027 improvements amid doctors’ dispute
Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- President Santiago Peña cited proposed 2027 allocations of $760 million for medicines and supplies and increased funding for Paraguay’s National Cancer Institute.
- Public doctors are demanding a salary increase, hospital supplies, permanent appointments for about 9,000 temporary professionals and other labor benefits.
- The government says it cannot finance the 76% raise sought by doctors, which Economy Minister Óscar Lovera estimated would cost $130 million to $150 million.
Santiago Peña is promising more medicines, better working conditions and improved infrastructure for Paraguay’s public health system, even as doctors continue pressing the government for a major pay increase.
More medicines, better working conditions and better infrastructure for our public health system.
In his first public reference to the health dispute since doctors joined a five-day strike the previous week, Peña pointed to proposals included in the government’s 2027 budget. They include $760 million for medicines and supplies and a larger allocation for the National Cancer Institute, which he said would rise from $110 million to $195 million.
“Today we are taking an important step, and we will continue working tirelessly on solutions so that every Paraguayan, wherever they are, receives complete, dignified and more humane health care,” Peña wrote on social media. He also repeated his proposal for a professional health career system that would set salaries according to experience and training. Doctors rejected the measure during last week’s dispute, saying the proposal had been sitting in Congress for 30 years.
Today we are taking an important step, and we will continue working tirelessly on solutions so that every Paraguayan, wherever they are, receives complete, dignified and more humane health care.
The president also highlighted the formal appointment of about 2,400 doctors working under contracts, the planned hiring of around 1,000 new professionals and payment for holidays worked. But the budget bill submitted to Congress, worth 166.3 trillion guaraníes, or about $25.7 billion, contains no provision for doctors’ salary increases.
It makes it impossible for the government to finance the adjustment.
Doctors affiliated with the National Medical Union say their salaries have not been updated since 2012. They are seeking a 76% adjustment, along with medicines and supplies for hospitals and permanent appointments for roughly 9,000 temporary workers. Economy Minister Óscar Lovera said the government could not finance the raise because it would cost between $130 million and $150 million. Opposition Senator Esperanza Martínez said Peña was “minimizing the doctors’ anger and indignation” by refusing to grant the increase.
He is minimizing the doctors’ anger and indignation.
About this summary
Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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