Políticas sanitarias durante el Lencinismo (1918-1928). El proyecto de Hospital de niños de Mendoza

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze the formulation of public health policies in Mendoza during the period of Lencinist governments (1918-1928). These governments proposed to expand the medical-health infrastructure in the capital city and maintained as a priority their expansion and development to the peripheral cities, in order to make assistance possible to people living in remote areas. It particularly describes the case of the construction project of a pediatric hospital in 1927, proposed in response to the expansion of diseases with a high rate of child mortality.

The architectural production derived from these health policies was linked to a change in the way technique and politics were related, which promoted the organization of competitions and hiring professionals for the execution of public works, in a context signified by a greater regulation of the exercise of different liberal professions (architecture, engineering, healing activities).

Various sources were consulted: draft laws and parliamentary debates in the articles of legislative sessions (Archive of the Legislature of Mendoza), local press of various signs: La Palabra, Los Andes, and El Socialista. In addition, the Report of the Ministry of Public Works corresponding to 1922-1923, the Report of the Health Directorate corresponding to 1927 (Public Library General San Martín), and Statistical Yearbooks of the period analyzed (General Direction of Statistics of Mendoza) was used.