An agreement between the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare and a group of specialist doctors withdrew 446 resignation requests and allowed scheduled surgeries that had been threatened to resume on Monday. The agreement, however, did not end the crisis: the National Doctors’ Union (Sinamed) is maintaining the strike scheduled for September 21 and 22, 2026.
The pact was signed on September 10 by Minister María Teresa Barán, Senator Lilian Samaniego and representatives of fields including anesthesiology, neurosurgery, pediatrics, cardiology, cardiovascular surgery and intensive care. Samaniego said that about 200 specialists considered indispensable would return to work and that up to 1,500 surgeries a month had been suspended.
The proposal presented by the government sets out a progressive pay scale: G. 6.5 million for the first position, G. 13 million for the second and G. 19.5 million for the third, with implementation scheduled for April, July and October 2027. Sinamed, however, did not accept the amounts or timetable. It is demanding a salary floor equivalent to 2.8 minimum wages and a solution to other shortcomings in the system.
Congress President Basilio Núñez is expected to take the union’s counterproposal to the executive branch. Senator Natalicio Chase said the negotiating table is also considering a Health Ministry proposal for US$67 million to distribute among professionals according to factors such as specialization, but medical representatives support maintaining the current career plan.
The main medical organizations challenged the agreement. The Paraguayan Society of Critical and Intensive Care Medicine said it had neither taken part in nor signed the document. The Paraguayan Medical Circle, the Paraguayan Society of Pulmonology and specialists from the General Pediatric Hospital said the text contained no budget guarantees or concrete deadlines and criticized what they considered a sector-based negotiation.
In Villarrica, four of the seven anesthesiologists at the Regional Hospital formally submitted their resignations to the Health Ministry. The resignations have not yet been accepted, and the professionals continue working; the teams said that, for now, emergency shifts, surgeries and maternity services remain covered. Regional director Rigoberto Alarcón warned that the possible departure of the specialists could jeopardize surgical and obstetric services.
Samaniego said the agreement addressed the operational emergency and that the second step would be to negotiate Sinamed’s broader demands, including salaries, medicines, supplies and infrastructure. The strategy triggered a political confrontation with Senator Esperanza Martínez, who accused the government of trying to divide the doctors. Samaniego denied the accusation and demanded an apology from her colleague, while the signatory specialists said they withdrew their resignations without abandoning the movement for a salary floor.