Ministry of Health (Chile)

In 1808, the Committee of Vaccines (Spanish: Junta de Vacunas) was founded, and then in 1832 the Board of Directors of Hospitals (Spanish: Junta Directiva de Hospitales) began operations. Both organizations were precursors of what would become the modern institutions of public health. In 1907, a division charged with the administration of public hygiene was created under the Ministry of the Interior (Spanish: Ministerio del Interior). Then on 14 October 1924, this division was made into the cabinet-level Ministry of Hygiene, Social Assistance and Welfare (Spanish: Ministerio de Higiene, Asistencia y Previsión Social), with the same function (Decree No. 44, 1924). In 1927 all the ministries underwent an important restructuring; with these change it became the Ministry of Social Welfare (Spanish: Ministerio de Bienestar Social), and was charged with, as well as the coordination of public health policies, the investigation of the application of laws relating to society, public welfare, and social security.^{[citation needed]}

In 1932, it was once again renamed, becoming the Ministry of Public Health (Spanish: Ministerio de Salubridad Pública), then the Ministry of Public Health, Social Assistance and Welfare (Spanish: Ministerio de Salubridad Pública, Asistencia y Previsión Social) in 1936, and later the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare (Spanish: Ministerio de Salud Pública y Previsión Social) in 1953.^{[citation needed]}

In 1959, the ministry was divided into the Ministry of Public Health (Spanish: Ministerio de Salud Pública), the modern form of the ministry, and, assuming the functions regulating the welfare of Chileans, the Ministry of Work and Social Welfare (Spanish: Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social).

Finally, from 1973 to 1979, the internal structure of the ministry, now simply the Ministry of Health, was reorganized, creating services such as the National Health Fund (Spanish: Fondo Nacional de Salud), or FONASA.^{[citation needed]}

Organization

Currently under the Ministry are the following public institutions:

• Fondo Nacional de Salud (Spanish: Fondo Nacional de Salud, FONASA)
• Public Health Institute of Chile (Spanish: Instituto de Salud Pública de Chile, ISP)
• Center for Supply (Spanish: Central de Abastecimiento, CENABAST)
• The Health Services in each region of the country are charges with the coordination, management, and development of the assistance networks and execution of the ministry's action.

Ministers of Hygiene, Social Assistance and Welfare

Picture	Name	Entered Office	Exited Office	Notes	Appointed by
	Alejandro del Río Soto-Aguilar	17 October 1924	23 January 1925		September Junta
	José Santos Salas Morales	29 January 1925	10 October 1925	Appointed by	January Junta
				Reappointed by	Luis Barros Borgoño
	Pedro Lautaro Ferrer Rodríguez	10 October 1925	23 December 1925
	Lucio Córdoba Labarca	23 December 1925	20 November 1926		Emiliano Figueroa
	Manuel Rivas Vicuña	20 November 1926	22 February 1927	Minister of the Interior
	Isaac Hevia Concha	22 February 1927	23 May 1927
	José Santos Salas Morales	23 May 1927	17 November 1927		Carlos Ibáñez del Campo

Ministers of Social Welfare

Picture	Name	Entered Office	Exited Office	Notes	Appointed by
	Enrique Balmaceda Toro	17 November 1927	20 April 1928	Interim	Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
	Alejandro Lazo	20 April 1928	6 June 1928
	Luis Schmidt	6 June 1928	21 June 1928	Interim
	Luis Carvajal Laurnaga	21 June 1928	5 August 1930
	Humberto Arce	5 August 1930	5 September 1930
	Ricardo Puelma Laval	5 September 1930	13 July 1931
	Juan Esteban Montero Rodríguez	13 July 1931	22 July 1931	Minister of the Interior and Social Welfare
	Héctor Boccardo Benvenuto	22 July 1931	22 July 1931
	Sótero del Río Gundián	26 July 1931	3 September 1931	Appointed by	Pedro Opazo
				Reappointed by	Juan Esteban Montero
	Santiago Wilson Barrientos	3 September 1931	15 November 1931		Manuel Trucco
	Sótero del Río Gundián	15 November 1931	4 June 1932		Juan Esteban Montero

Ministers of Public Health (First Creation)

Ministers of Public Health, Social Assistance and Welfare

Picture	Name	Entered Office	Exited Office	Notes	Appointed by
	Eduardo Cruz-Coke Lassabe	15 January 1937	15 September 1938		Arturo Alessandri
	Luis Prúnes Rissetti	15 September 1938	24 December 1938
	Miguel Etchebarne Rioll	24 December 1938	25 December 1939		Pedro Aguirre Cerda
	Salvador Allende Gossens	25 December 1939	2 April 1942
	Eduardo Escudero Forrastal	2 April 1942	15 August 1942		Juan Antonio Rios
	Miguel Etchebarne Rioll	15 August 1942	4 February 1943
	Jerónimo Méndez Arancibia	4 February 1943	7 June 1943
	Sótero del Río Gundián	7 June 1943	3 February 1946
	Juan Garafulic Dubracic	3 February 1946	6 September 1946
	René García Valenzuela	6 September 1946	3 November 1946
	Fernando Claro Salas	3 November 1946	16 April 1947		Gabriel González Videla
	Manuel Sanhueza Morales	16 April 1947	2 August 1947
	José Santos Salas Morales	2 August 1947	7 July 1948
	Guillermo Varas Contreras	7 July 1948	7 February 1950
	Manuel Aguirre Geisse	7 February 1950	27 February 1950
	Jorge Mardones Restat	27 February 1950	22 July 1952
	Sótero del Río Gundián	22 July 1952	3 November 1952
	Waldemar Coutts Billiviller	3 November 1952	1 April 1953		Carlos Ibáñez del Campo

Ministers of Public Health and Social Welfare

Ministers of Public Health (Second Creation)

Picture	Name	Entered Office	Exited Office	Notes	Appointed by
	Sótero del Río Gundián	29 October 1959	26 August 1961		Jorge Alessandri
	Benjamín Cid Quiroz	26 August 1961	26 September 1963
	Francisco Rojas Villegas	26 September 1963	3 November 1964
	Ramón Valdivieso Delaunay	3 November 1964	3 November 1970		Eduardo Frei Montalva
	Oscar Jiménez Pinochet	3 November 1970	14 August 1971		Salvador Allende
	Juan Carlos Concha Gutiérrez	14 August 1971	3 November 1972
	Arturo Jirón Vargas	3 November 1972	28 August 1973
	Mario Lagos Hernández	28 August 1973	11 September 1973
	Alberto Spoerer Covarrubias	12 September 1973	11 November 1974		Augusto Pinochet
	Francisco Herrera	12 November 1974	7 March 1976
	Fernando Matthei	8 March 1976	23 July 1978
	Carlos Jiménez Vargas	24 July 1978	13 December 1979
	Alejandro Medina Lois	14 December 1979	28 December 1980
	Hernán Rivera Calderón	29 December 1980	9 August 1983
	Winston Chinchón Bunting	10 August 1983	12 August 1986
	Juan Giaconi Gandolfo	13 August 1986	10 March 1990
	Jorge Jiménez	11 March 1990	29 August 1992		Patricio Aylwin
	Julio Montt	30 August 1992	10 April 1994
	Carlos Massad	11 April 1994	6 August 1996		Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
	Álex Figueroa	7 August 1996	10 March 2000
	Michelle Bachelet	11 March 2000	6 February 2002		Ricardo Lagos
	Osvaldo Artaza	7 February 2002	2 March 2003
	Pedro García Aspillaga	3 March 2003	10 March 2006
	María Soledad Barría	11 March 2006	27 October 2008		Michelle Bachelet
	Álvaro Erazo	28 October 2008	10 March 2010
	Jaime Mañalich	11 March 2010	10 March 2014		Sebastián Piñera
	Helia Molina	11 March 2014	22 January 2015		Michelle Bachelet
	Carmen Castillo Taucher	23 January 2015	11 March 2018
	Emilio Santelices	11 March 2018	12 June 2019		Sebastián Piñera
	Jaime Mañalich	13 June 2019	13 June 2020
	Enrique Paris	13 June 2020	11 March 2022
	María Begoña Yarza	11 March 2022	6 September 2022		Gabriel Boric
	Ximena Aguilera	6 September 2022	Incumbent

Sources

• República de Chile (1942). "VI. Poder Ejecutivo - Nómina de Gobernantes, Presidentes y Ministros desde la Independencia.". Manual del Senado. 1810-1942 (PDF) (in Spanish). Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Universitaria. (in Spanish)
• Valencia Avaria, Luis (1986). Anales de la República: textos constitucionales de Chile y registro de los ciudadanos que han integrado los poderes ejecutivo y legislativo desde 1810 (in Spanish) (2ª edición ed.). Santiago de Chile: Editorial Andrés Bello. (in Spanish)

• MINSAL official website (in Spanish)
• Official history
• Public Health policies and Ministers (in Spanish)
• Some biographies of famous Chilean doctors (in Spanish)
• Biographies of famous Chilean doctors and Freemasons (in Spanish)