​05/14/2020

Press Release No. 255, 2020

- The purpose is to pay health personnel in public hospitals that are owed January, February and March 2020.

Bogotá, May 14, 2020. Resolution 753, 2020 of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection determined the transfer of resources for the payment of accumulated labor debts for health workers.

This was explained by the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz, during the Prevention and Action program with President Iván Duque, based on the fact that there is a "need to cover that historical debt and which represented an inequity for our workers."

With this resolution, Ruiz pointed out, initially, "$213 billion pesos will be paid to 543 public hospitals in the country with the aim of covering payroll arrears of January, February and March 2020. Transfers are based on letters already signed, sent to each of the hospitals with specific requirements and to prepare the procedure in order to send the resources immediately."

$213,492,727,000 from the Operating Expenses Budget of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection for the 2020 fiscal year will be directed to institutions, the names and amounts of which are determined in the document. Furthermore, he was categorical in saying that these monies should be used for the payment of payroll arrears.

"This is the first part. We want to add to it and start working on paying the debts of December 2019 and before, with a provision by the Ministry of Finance, so we could be thinking of covering all the debts of public hospitals", Ruiz added.

This, said the minister, "is a historical fact that will bring us up to date and is a very great effort by the National Government. It marks a milestone in the relations between public hospitals and health sector workers in the country."

Lastly, he said that he also signed Resolution 747, 2020 adopting the health strategy to monitor covid-19. In it, monitoring indicators are proposed and formalized, as well as forming an advisory committee of members of the National Government and external academics to analyze everything that has to do with monitoring the epidemic in the national territory.