President Javier Milei's government announced Thursday that it will eliminate Argentina's national cancer institute.
In a statement, Argentina's Health Ministry announced the closure of the Instituto Nacional del Cáncer because of a "duplicity of tasks" and to have "greater control of actions." The body will be absorbed by the portfolio, it added.
The Health Ministry issued a statement on the X social network in which it said it had detected "logistical problems, with the delivery of medicines on the verge of expiry, inefficient purchases and duplicated programmes and structures," along with functions that were already being carried out in other state entities.
Milei's government alleged there were "serious failures" in drug purchases. It cited an example of a 2023 purchase, during former president Alberto Fernández's term in office that allegedly resulted in the disposal of "400,000 units of expired morphine."
The Health Ministry vowed in its statement that the change would "not affect the continuity of any programme guaranteed by the Instituto Nacional del Cáncer and is only an administrative change aimed at correcting the problems encountered."
It did not clarify whether any of the 183 employees at the agency would be laid off, though hospitals and public health programmes have not been spared from Milei's "chainsaw" approach to slashing state spending.
Just last week dozens of health organisations, doctors‘ and nurses’ unions, patients' associations and human rights organisations marched in Buenos Aires to protest against Milei's government over dismissals, the underfunding of health care programmes and cuts in medical supplies.
Thursday's announcement is the latest in a series of cuts to state bodies that Milei has made since taking office in December 2023, such as the elimination of the INCAA national film institute, the Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry, the INADI anti-discrimination watchdog and the state news agency Télam.
Over the weekend, Milei and Federico Sturzenegger, his state transformation and deregulation minister, celebrated the laying off of more than 40,000 public employees last year.
– TIMES/AFP
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