​03/03/2020

Press Bulletin No. 041, 2020

-The President of the Republic, Iván Duque, noted the challenges for the new head of the health ministry, highlighting the current global situation of the coronavirus and the continuation of the End Point Agreement to settle sector debts.

Bogotá, March 3, 2020. In the Hall of the Gobelins of Casa de Nariño and before Iván Duque, President of the Republic, Fernando Ruiz, a doctor and holding a master's in Economics of Universidad Javeriana was sworn in as new Minister of Health and Social Protection.

Before becoming Minister, he served as scientific director of the Cancer Treatment and Research Center project. He was also a health sector consultant for the World Bank. He directed the project and the implementation of the first Comprehensive Center for Cancer Care in Latin America and was also director of the Center for Development Projects (CENDEX) of Universidad Javeriana.

"He has a history in medical training, pursued specialization in public health at Harvard University, and received his doctorate in Mexico. For several years he has conducted rigorous studies on how to deepen coverage in quality in our country. He has been in research centers that have accredited him in these matters. His time at Universidad Javeriana earned him immense recognition and I fully believe that we all appreciate this trajectory in the service of our country," said President Duque during the ceremony.

Ruiz holds a Master's degree in Public Health/Occupational Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, and a PhD in Public Health, from the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico. In his professional career, the position he held as Deputy Minister of Public Health during the 2013-2016 period stands out.

Among the great challenges for the health ministry mentioned by the President of Colombia, he underscored that this year "the End Point Agreement will be fast-tracked so that we can settle historical debts accumulated with the hospital network through ADRES. That will allow us to oxygenate the system, and make the principle of non-repetition effective under the premise of recovery ceilings, a policy that is already underway, but that you will materialize."

The purging of the system is another of the challenges mentioned by Duque, as well as continuing to the next stage of electronic and digital medical history, and thus delving into telehealth, "allowing diagnoses to be made accurately in different parts of the country without retesting when a citizen moves from one territory to another."

"And you will also have the responsibility to move forward in the pact for transparency in public hospital management in the country that we signed a few days ago with the governors. We emphasized this, that hospital management must be headed by suitable people and at the service of the citizen and not of patronage or politics," said the President.

The final purpose, said Duque, is to bring medicine and citizen care. "To give life to the concept of a doctor who is close to the citizen, of a doctor who can give way to fast care."

Noting it as an imminent challenge that the world is seeing today, the president made reference to the COVID-19 coronavirus. "Our responsibility is to serve the citizen, but also to provide timely and verified information by the Ministry, to prevent false news or panic. We understand that this issue is pressing and it requires the best of us."

"Today we have to work articulately and understand that the risks in the world exist, but that we must be clear that containment, detection and reaction measures are reliable as long as we maintain that certainty in the information points and chain controls," added Duque.

He concluded by saying that this is a government that sees health as a priority and that has given the health sector the largest budget in its history, a clear commitment to the health of Colombians.