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From: xkkmera%GARBO.ERICSSON.SE@uchcecvm.cec.uchile.cl (        "(Jesus Ramirez)")
Subject: Noticias!
Original-To: Multiple recipients of list CHILE-L <CHILE-L@PURCCVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: chile.chile-l
Distribution: chile
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 08:48:35 CST

Saludos a todos en Chile-l!
   Les mando noticias llegadas a mi de CENTAM-L  copiadas y llegadas a ustedes
 con permiso de la fuente. Ojala y les sirva. Muchos saludos.
                                 Jesus...///
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15. HEALTH CRISIS IN CHILE: DOCTORS THREATEN MASS RESIGNATION
On Nov. 2, Chilean President Patricio Aylwin designated Julio
Montt as Chile's new Health Minister, replacing Jorge Jimenez,
who quit on Oct. 30 in the face of the threat of collective
resignation of some 900 emergency service doctors who are
demanding better salaries. Before his appointment to the post,
Montt, a 66-year old doctor, ran one of Santiago's most elite
private clinics. The crisis came partially under control when
Jimenez resigned and Aylwin made a new offer to advance a study
of the doctors' economic demands. On Oct. 31, the doctors--who
had planned to quit en masse the following day--agreed to delay
their decision for one week. Upon swearing in the new minister,
Aylwin discarded privatization of Chile's health services as a
solution to the conflict. He said, "The great challenge is to
find more efficient and decentralized formulas of health
services." [ED-LP  11/3/92 from AP] Leaders of the "Medical
College," the association which represents the doctors' interests
like a trade union, said Jimenez' resignation "presented a new
scenario and better conditions for dialogue." [La Jornada 11/1/92
from IPS & AP] Jimenez said he resigned because he came to
realize that his presence was an obstacle to a solution. [Chile
Information Project (CHIP) News 10/31/92]

The doctors who are threatening resignation in the Santiago area
represent about 95% of the total there; doctors in the provinces
are also taking the same action. They are not only demanding
better salaries, but also infrastructure improvements in
hospitals and emergency rooms. President Aylwin, speaking over
radio and TV on Oct. 29, recognized the "terrible conditions
under which many services are forced to function and the strength
and self-denial exercised by those who work in them." Aylwin said
the medical crisis is left over from military dictatorship of
Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), and that when he took power in
March 1990, the hospitals were in "a serious state of
deterioration and neglect." Aylwin called the doctors' demand
"legitimate" but said the government does not have the money to
meet them. Meanwhile, Manuel Bustos, leader of the country's main
union federation (CUT), criticized the doctors, saying they
should have denounced the critical situation at the hospitals
during the Pinochet dictatorship. Bustos added that the doctors
have received more support than the 60,000 health workers whose
salaries are among the lowest of all state workers. [IPS
10/30/92]
*********************************FIN********************************************
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Jesus Ramirez Mercado
Ericsson Telecom            memo: xkkmera@memo.ericsson.se
Stockholm-Sweden            e-mail:xkkmera@garbo.ericsson.se
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