Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare rejected the resignations submitted by specialist doctors in critical fields and, on the same day, reached an agreement for the professionals to withdraw their resignations and not take part in the strike called for September 21 and 22 by the National Medical Union (Sinamed).
The resolution signed by Minister María Teresa Barán keeps specialists in Anesthesiology, Pediatric Surgery, Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care attached to the public system. The government argues that the supply of these professionals is limited and that immediate replacements would be difficult, especially in services for children and adolescents.
The text cites Article 56 of Law No. 7,445/25, which allows the competent authority to assess whether resignations are justified when the public interest is at stake. Barán said the doctors themselves had expressed, in meetings with the ministry, their intention to continue working at the institution. “Dialogue remains open, and there is a full willingness to continue working to build agreements,” she said.
The agreement reached afterward provides for the creation of a working group to establish differentiated pay for specialists and subspecialists in high-complexity and critical-care medicine. The proposal includes, among other fields, Neurosurgery, Cardiovascular Surgery and neonatal, pediatric and adult intensive care.
Senators Noelia Cabrera, chair of the Senate Health Commission, and Lilian Samaniego pledged to submit a technical and legislative proposal to include the funds in the next General Budget of the Nation. The financing is expected to be structured under Expenditure Object 183, known as the Recategorization Fund.
The agreement prevents, in the short term, the specialists’ departure and this group’s participation in the Sinamed stoppage, preserving the schedule of complex procedures in the public network of Asunción and the departmental capitals. The creation of the salary benefit, however, still depends on budgetary feasibility and the corresponding legislative steps.
The Ministry also cited measures adopted between 2023 and 2026 to improve working conditions: a 12-hour contractual workweek with double the hourly rate, an increase in residents’ pay from G. 4 million to G. 6 million, raises for rural interns, the hiring of 5,141 professionals through competitive examinations and authorization for 13,230 appointments to reduce precarious employment in the public service.