Undersecretary Fábrega says he will not resign following recent Health scandal

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SANTIAGO.- Despite harsh questioning from the Alianza and left-wing Parliament members, the Undersecretary of Medical Services, Ricardo Fábrega, has said he will not resign from his position following a scandal at a hospital in Vallenar, where doctors operated on patients with surgical instruments that had not been sterilized.

"We do our job every day, we keep the system functioning and when there are localized failures to comply I think that people understand and know how to decipher when things are simply political and when they really represent problems within the health sector", Fábrega told Radio Cooperativa.

When asked about a possible administrative problem within the Ministry, the undersecretary stated that this was not the case in Vallenar because the hospital possessed all of the necessary infrastructure, resources, staff, protocol, and training, and the mistake was due to human error.

Nevertheless, Fábrega acknowledged that there are responsibilities that must be assumed by local authorities. "The string needs to be cut where appropriate, where there is responsibility", he asserted.