President Danilo Medina has appointed the director of the state sector health provider Senasa, Altagracia Guzman Marcelino to replace Freddy Hidalgo at the helm of the Ministry of Public Health. This will be the second time she heads the department of health. Hidalgo had been in the post since the start of the Medina administration in August 2012.
President Medina also appointed a new hospital director, Dr. Jose Miguel Ferreras to replace Dr. Rosa Nieves Paulino. As part of a new focus on health issues, the Presidency announced measures to decentralize health services, proceeding as established by the General Health Law 42-01 and the Social Security Law 87-01.
Guzman headed the commission that investigated the most recent 11 deaths on a weekend at the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital, the country’s leading pediatrics hospital. The story provoked widespread outrage after its initial publication by Listin Diario. It was also revealed that the high number of deaths was normal on weekends.
The media highlighted that the problems at the hospital are not new. While the commission mentioned medical negligence, the media focused on delays in implementing primary care programs to reduce the number of patients and the need for a much larger budget at the hospital. The situation in the country’s public hospitals got worse when the Medina administration ordered a stop to the practice of charging patients a so-called “recovery fee” that enabled the hospitals to make ends meet.
A pediatrician, Guzman was appointed minister of Public Health in 1997 during the first PLD government, under then-President Leonel Fernandez.
She has six children and is married to Dr. Fernando Sanchez Martinez. She is a former president of the Dominican Medical Association (today CMD), a graduate in medicine from UASD and a former professor of pediatrics at the state university, with a specialty in Pediatrics at the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital. She also specialized in infectology in Mexico. She was involved in drafting the General Health Law 42-01, and was a legislator (PLD-National District for the ruling PLD party from 1994-97) where she chaired the chamber health commission.
http://presidencia.gob.do/noticias/nueva-ministra-de-salud-presidente-sustituye-directora-robert-reid-cabral
http://www.presidencia.gob.do/noticias/ejecutivo-dispone-desconcentracion-en-servicios-regionales-de-salud