Argentina’s Health Ministry announced in a press release on Wednesday that it would not renew the contracts of 1,400 workers. The ministry cited a “reorganization of its competencies and the reorientation of health policies.”

The ministry’s communiqué described the layoffs as “a resource optimization” that would affect national hospitals. The decision resulted from “the identification of hiring irregularities during the previous administration, duplicate roles, and non-compliance with tasks,” the communiqué added, saying they had already fired 30% of the ministry’s “political positions.”

President Javier Milei celebrated the layoffs on X with his usual catchphrase: “Afuera.” 

“We keep going with the chainsaw. The End,” he wrote.

These are not the first cuts Milei’s administration has made in the health sector. Medical doctors nationwide held protests throughout 2024, saying their salaries were virtually frozen, and the government stopped giving some medications for free to retirees. In 2024, the Milei administration fired 120 workers from the Posadas National Hospital.

In its 2025 budget proposal, the government put forward a minimal increase for the country’s national program combatting HIV, STIs, Hepatitis, and Tuberculosis, which Act Up Argentina condemned as equalling a 76% cut when considering inflation.

Some workers had been notified of the impending layoffs: on Tuesday, 130 employees at the Baldomero Sommer National Hospital, located in the Buenos Aires province, got the news.

“The notices are coming in right now. It’s a bloodbath,” Leonardo Fernández Camacho, the union’s representative of the Laura Bonaparte Mental Health Hospital, told the Herald on Wednesday evening. Fernández Camacho said there were “more than 100 layoffs and counting.”

“I would almost say there are virtually not enough people to open the hospital tomorrow,” he added.

Last year, the government announced it would partially shut down the Bonaparte Hospital, the only national government-owned public hospital dedicated to addictions, but backtracked on it after widespread protests.

A source from the ATE state workers union told the Herald that other affected areas include the Malbrán Institute—an award-winning microbiological research center—the ANMAT—the government agency that monitors the efficacy, safety, and quality of drugs, food, and medical device — and the ministry’s central headquarters.
The ATE source also confirmed to the Herald that they will hold an assembly on Thursday and then speak with Health Minister Mario Lugones.