Paraguay’s five-day public-sector doctors’ strike ended without a deal as 86% of specialists at the country’s main pediatric hospital announced resignations.
Paraguayan doctors ended a five-day public-sector strike on Friday without reaching an agreement with the government, while mass resignations by medical specialists threatened to put further pressure on hospitals.
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At the General Pediatric Hospital of Acosta Ñu, the country’s main pediatric specialty center, the strike committee said it was receiving resignations from 141 of the hospital’s 164 specialist doctors, representing 86% of the total.
The resignations involve specialists in intensive care, anesthesiology, pediatric surgery and complex pediatric surgery. Roberto Riveros, labor secretary of the Paraguayan Society of Pediatric Surgery, said they would take effect Monday if the government failed to give a favorable response to the doctors’ demands before the strike ended.
“This is a very critical situation, and it is creating a snowball effect,” Riveros told ABC TV. He said 19 of the 21 pediatric intensive-care specialists at the Hospital del Trauma in Asunción would also resign.
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— SINAMED MSPYBS (@Sinamed_MSPYBS) August 27, 2026
The coordinator of intensive care at Acosta Ñu said there were no specialists in Paraguay capable of replacing the pediatric intensivists and surgeons who have announced their departures.
Doctors say negotiations produced no agreement
The strike, called by the National Medical Union (Sinamed), began Monday with marches and demonstrations across the country. Doctors are demanding a 76% salary increase, saying their pay has not been adjusted since 2012, as well as adequate supplies and medicines for hospitals.
They are also seeking permanent appointments for about 9,000 professionals currently working under temporary contracts, along with improvements to other labor benefits.
Several rounds of negotiations with Health Minister María Teresa Barán and Economy Minister Óscar Lovera failed to produce an agreement.
Lovera said Tuesday that the government could not finance the 76% increase sought by public-sector doctors. As an alternative, he proposed linking salary improvements to professional training through the creation of a “health-care career” system.
With no agreement reached, doctors continued their protests on Friday.
In the southern department of Itapúa, where a stage of the World Rally Championship was being held, Sinamed Secretary-General Rossana González led a demonstration.
“We received no response from the government, nor did it put forward any proposal, which is why we will continue protesting,” González said. She said the union would convene an assembly to decide whether to call another strike.
Protests spread across the country
In Asunción, doctors again blocked a major avenue outside the Ministry of Economy and Finance before marching through the capital with support from medical students at the National University of Asunción.
“We, as students, are not asking for anything extraordinary for our doctors. We are asking that they be valued and treated with dignity, and above all that hospitals have supplies, so that no one has to die because they are poor,” said Alcides Bordón, president of the university’s student association.
Protests were also held in Ciudad del Este, the country’s second-largest city and main commercial center. In the southern department of Misiones, doctors and farmers blocked the highway linking Asunción with Ciudad del Este.
The Paraguayan Society of Anesthesiology said Thursday that it would declare a “conflict zone” in every hospital under the Health Ministry where anesthesiologists resign.
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.