Puno Regional Health Directorate relocates 60 staff amid inadequate facilities

The Regional Government of Puno moved about 60 employees of the Regional Health Directorate (DIRSA) to a third temporary office within 15 days. The staff first occupied premises on Coronel Barriga street, then Tacna street, and finally a location on Jirón Fermín Arbulu that lacks a signed lease.

Doctor Juan Carlos Mendoza, who heads the area of Health of Persons, reported that the new site has no proper desks, unreliable electricity and internet, and insufficient space for technical and administrative work. The fragmented arrangement has halted technical assistance, monitoring, and the distribution of medicines and vaccines across the region, delaying health indicators and aggravating ongoing alerts for measles and avian flu. Mendoza called the moves an "attack on public health" and urged the central government to assume control of the regional health directorate.

The staff and their union have petitioned the Defensoría del Pueblo, the Fiscalía, and the Contraloría to investigate the damage and the lack of a proper contract for the current premises.