Senator of the National Party Martin Lema considered that the appearance this Tuesday of the Minister of Public Health Cristina Lustemberg in Parliament was “disappointing” and The leader was unable to explain why she decided to lower the disqualification from five to three years. anesthetist Inés Miralles, convicted in December 2025 for a malpractice case.
Miralles He intervened as an anesthetist in a gallbladder operation for pediatrician Soledad Barrera in 2023 at the mutual society SMI. The patient made a cardiac arrest during operation. He had no previous complications and after the arrest he suffered a brain damage that left her in almost vegetative state for ten months until he died.
“The reality is that Today’s appearance was disappointing. The expectation was that the clear error would be recognized, that the problems that existed in the process would be recognized and that they would seek to correct them to provide guarantees to the users of the health system,” said the white leader at a press conference after the session of the Senate Health Commission.
Lema maintained that “the questions continue“regarding the actions of the Ministry of Public Health, which, unlike what had been determined by the Honorary Public Health Commission (which issued Miralles’ disqualification for five years in December 2024), decided to lower the penalty time.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, Miralles is convicted since December 2025, after reaching an abbreviated agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, for manslaughter and serving 24 months of night house arrest.
“We still do not know why the minister lowers the disqualification from five to three years to carry out the exercise, in this case, of the anesthetist. The truth is, we don’t know. We do not know the reasons, the why, which is also a decision that discredited the academy. It led to the resignation of 11 of the 13 members of the Honorary Public Health Commission“Lema noted.
He also considered that “all the movements” that the ministry made in this case favored the anesthetist, including the ministry’s delay in responding to the appeal of Miralles, who filed an appeal for annulment against the disqualification before the Administrative Litigation Court (TCA).
Due to the above, Lema pointed out that there is a “loss of trust” towards the minister, which generates “deep indignation.” However, he said that this did not imply asking for Lustemberg’s resignation.
The defense of Lustemberg
In the commission and also in a subsequent press conference, Lustemberg read a document that contained the ministry’s account of what was done.
The minister noted that “there was no intention to favor Miralles“and that the reduction in disqualification was resolved based on legal criteria.
She argued that most of the proceedings on this case took place before she became minister and that she came into contact with the matter. when the anesthetist filed an appeal against the disqualification issued by the Honorary Public Health Commission.
Lustemberg alleged that a report from the Legal Division of the ministry advised him to support the actions of the commission —that is, maintain the disqualification— but reduce the penalty to three years.
The argument was that in “other similar cases the penalty of disqualification from practicing the profession” had not exceeded three years.
Once the ministry confirmed the disqualification, Miralles filed an appeal for annulmentso the topic now It is being studied by the TCA.
That appeal is currently being studied by the court and was not answered by the ministry, an error that the authorities recognized.
At the press conference in Parliament, lawyer Fabiana Alonso, from the Ministry’s Legal Division, assured that “it is true” that the appeal “was answered a day later.”
“It was a human error in the number of trials and proceduresboth from the TCA and from ordinary protection trials that exist in the Ministry of Public Health,” he alleged.
However, he pointed out that “what was left out of the file was the account of the facts,” but that all the evidence, including “all the administrative actions” and a medical expertise by the judge, are part of the file.
