History of public health in Ecuador

The first beginnings of the right to Public Health began in 1963, when the
Undersecretariat of Health was created, which depended on the Ministry of Social
Prevention and Labor. It began as the Ministry of Public Health on June 16, 1964, as a
Social Assistance institution. At the time of its creation, the country of Ecuador was the
only country in Latin America that did not have a health system, much less a Ministry of
Public Health.
In 1967, the Ministry of Public Health was created by the Legislative Assembly, which
was published in the Official Registry and came into force. To be in charge of all
aspects related to health, social assistance, nutrition, housing and other situations that
are related to the general health of Ecuadorians. In its beginnings, it was structured by
three basic levels which are: managerial, operational and advisory, which constituted
the representation of the executive function in the organization and would execute the
comprehensive health policy in the country. One of the main objectives of the Ministry of
Health was to coordinate with autonomous and semi-autonomous institutions to create
a regulatory system at the national level. In 1968 Congress accepted the Health Code
and the Rural Medicine Plan. Which came into execution in 1970 and on August 29 of
the same year it was established that the National Malaria Eradication Service would
function as a direct dependent of the Ministry of Public Health and under the direction
and control of the National Health Directorate. .
In 1972, on April 14, administrative policy in health was reoriented and subsequently
mobilized through Executive Decree No. 232 in which the General Directorate of Health
is centralized in the city of Quito. The Social Assistance boards were integrated into the
Ministry, so they now manage 48% of the country's hospital beds. The Ecuadorian Anti-
Tuberculosis League, currently known as the Alfredo Valenzuela Hospital, also joins the
Ministry of Health. In 1973, the plan called Plan País arose, for which the First Five-
Year Health Plan was launched, created by the Undersecretary of Environmental
Sanitation, and in the years 1974-1979, new programs were created, such as expanded
Immunization, Acute Respiratory Control, Maternal and child. Operational fight against
Endemic Goiter, food supplementation, hospital re-equipment, among others.
In the years 1979 and 1988 the National Health Council was created. The
undersecretary of the Region in Guayaquil was also created in 1982. Continuing with
the programs created by the Country Plan. Afterwards, a new plan called the National
Health Plan was created in the years of 1991 and 2000, which had the objective of
forcing activities to be prioritized and to optimize available resources, in a time of
national crisis. And a new model of care for the family and the community was
established. Which resulted in the health sector being integrated on the basis of the
Public subsector and the Private subsector; the first formed by: the government,
decentralized entities and social security; the second by the Private subsector
organized for profit and others by the liberal subsector.
Currently, the mission of the Ministry of Health is to exercise the stewardship,
regulation, planning, coordination, control and management of Ecuadorian Public Health
through governance, surveillance and health control, thus guaranteeing the right to
health through the provision of individual care services, as well as disease prevention,
equal health promotion, research and development of science and technology.
Likewise, exercise a reference model in Latin America that prioritizes health promotion
and the prevention of diseases with levels of quality care with warmth, guaranteeing the
comprehensive health of the population and free access to this health service with the
participation, coordination of both private and public organizations.

Bibliographies
 Morocho, Silvia Castillo, and D Pedro Marset Campos. s. F.
«HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE HEALTH SYSTEM OF
ECUADOR”», 223.
 Morocho Castle, Silvia. 2015. "Historical development of the health
system of Ecuador." TDR (Network Doctoral Theses) . Ph.D. Thesis,
University of Murcia. http://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/316785.
 Demon, Josh. 2007. «History, health and globalization», January.
http://repositorio.flacsoandes.edu.ec/handle/10469/4219.