User:Guillermo2149/sandbox/MSPyBS

The Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare (MSPyBS) is the institution of the Paraguayan government responsible for leading, conducting, funding and providing health services.

History
[for previous see healthcare in paraguay#history]

Foundation
Before 1936, all health services were provided and administered by the Ministry of Interior. The only big hospitals were the Military Hospital and Hospital de Clínicas. Outside the capital, only four departments had regional hospitals and a few health posts. However, the consequences produced by the Chaco War on the Paraguyan population made government officials agree it was time for a health ministry to be created.

Dr. Pedro Duarte Ortellado presented the problem to then-president Rafael Franco in Carandayty with these words: ""Colonel, the war has to end soon and we will have very grave health problems. The wounded and mutilated that must continue to be treated will need institutions to take care of them, but we will have way more serious health problems with the thousands of diseased that have gone from the Western to the Eastern Region, carrying disieases from the Chaco: malaria, dysentery, typhoid fever and others, besides malnourishment, avitaminosis and other pathologies.""

- Alfredo Seiferheld Thus, a commission was formed with the task of creating the basis for a new ministry to be leaded by Duarte as National Director of Hygiene and Public Assistance with support from the most prominent medical doctors at the time, such as: Carlos Gatti, Max Boettner, Ramón Giménez Gaona Battilana, José Insfrán, Julio Manuel Morales and others. Another mission given to this future institution was redacting a Public Health Law, a charter and a Public Health Plan for the new ministry.

Foundation
On June 15, 1936, Franco founded the Ministry of Public Health (Ministerio de Salud Pública) by Decree-Law No. 2000/36 and its charter by Law No. 2001/36.

Initially, the ministry was divided into three directions:


 * Hygiene and Public Health
 * Beneficence
 * Fight Against Tuberculosis.

These three would later form the Department of Hygiene and Beneficence with the following sub-divisions:


 * Malaria
 * Public Assistance
 * Biostatistics and Health Education
 * Fight Against Tuberculosis

The ministry's original mission was to promote overal wellness and providing medical assitance to the all the country's population, as well as administering the National Health Service. With the creation of this ministry, the Paraguayan government took charge of healthcare in the country. This new institution also had among its functions the control on health-related professions and service providers.

Initially, its officials worked in a building on Palma Street, but the need for the ministry to have headquarters of its own would later become evident. On January 13, 1943, the Municipality of Asunción gave the ministry a piece of land that had been chosen by the PAHO as the most adequate place.

The decree-law was abolished in 1998 with Juan Carlos Wasmosy's Decree No. 21376/98, whereby a new functional organization of was established for the ministry (now with "and Social Welfare" added to its name). This document was welcomed by then-Minister of Health Andrés Vidovich Morales.