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Original article: Cuenta Pública: Fenats Unitaria cuestionó omisiones de Kast sobre recorte del 2,5% a la Salud

President José A. Kast dedicated nearly three minutes to the segment on Public Health during his Public Account, primarily focusing on wait lists, his administration’s progress in oncology services for over 33,000 individuals, and an 80% resolution rate for the most critical cases.

Kast acknowledged that the major issues within the healthcare system extend beyond cancer, highlighting the existence of over three million unresolved services within the health network.

Despite these announcements, his presidential address did not address the budget cuts impacting the sector, an omission that prompted a reaction from the Confederation Fenats Unitaria, the largest union of public health workers, which expressed its complete disagreement after reviewing the message.

«This presidential announcement lacked a thorough examination of the structural urgencies within the state healthcare system. The most significant omission, and concurrently the most certain aspect of this crisis, is that there wasn’t any indication in the presidential speech to address or mitigate the 2.5% budget cut imposed on the sector,» stated the national president of Fenats Unitaria, Ricardo Ruiz Escalona.

According to the union leader, this situation «instills a deep mantle of uncertainty and concern regarding the performance of the healthcare network.»

«This insufficient and negative government stance leaves us with a bitter and worrisome aftertaste, especially upon realizing that the Executive has chosen to ignore cross-cutting warnings raised by lawmakers from various sectors, the Medical Association, technicians, specialists, and the organizations representing health sector workers,» emphasized Ruiz Escalona.

«We have been emphatic in stating that this budget cut will cause direct harm to public health, ultimately resulting in severe deterioration in user care,» added the representative of the public health employees.

«Unviable» Stance

Fenats Unitaria described the government stance as «unviable and unacceptable» given the reduction of staff, freezing of replacements for absent employees, or cutting overtime hours for thousands of workers in an already structurally fatigued service.

«As health sector workers, we had legitimate expectations that the Executive would demonstrate a willingness to rectify similar to what was applied to the citizen security budget, where funding was indeed secured. With this not happening, we face a complex horizon with no positive updates for the health of the 80% of the populace that relies on the health network’s services,» the Confederation concluded.

We will continue to provide updates.

La entrada Public Account: Fenats Unitaria Criticizes Kast’s Oversight of 2.5% Health Budget Cut se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.