00:00Paraguay is facing one of the most serious crises in its public health care system.
00:06One in 300 doctors have notified their resignations following strikes and protests.
00:10They denounce a profound neglect by the government toward health care and its workers.
00:15The Secretary General of the National Doctors' Union confirmed that the professionals who are resigning belong to various health care
00:22facilities,
00:23including the Niño de Acosta New Patriotic Hospital, one of the most important in the country.
00:29The decision came after a week-long strike which mobilized nearly 11,000 health care professionals across the country.
00:36The government of President Santiago Peña asserts that it cannot fund the 76% salary increase demanded by the doctors.
00:44The Minister of Economy, Oscar Lovera, proposes as an alternative a health care career path that links salary increases to
00:50professional training,
00:52a response that the union considers insufficient.
01:08We hold the signed resignations in our hands.
01:10We set a clear deadline tied to the end of this strike.
01:13In the beginning, we marched and protested alongside the Ministry as a unified society of pediatric surgeons.
01:18We went to the demonstrations, we went to the marches, and when we finally saw that there wasn't any response,
01:26nor an attempt to negotiate, nor an attempt to negotiate, nor an effort to sit down and ask how to
01:35help us,
01:35we realized we had to take more drastic measures.
01:38Today, we are facing the exact same breaking point as every other doctor in this nation.
01:42We are in the same position that all the other doctors in the country, in the same situation that all
01:48the other doctors in the country.
