A debate on the creation of the Ministry of Health in Spain during the first third of the XX century. Ideological discourse and political initiatives

Abstract

Given the dramatic sanitary situation that characterized Spain during the Restauration period, and within the framework of a general proposal for the reform and the modernization of the health administration, the debates concerning the creation of a Ministry of Health played a significant role in the medical literature of the first third of the XX century. The present work intends to report on the proposals made for the creation of than Ministry ever since their submission during the last years of the XIX century, up to the proclamation of the Second Republic, and emphasizes the analysis of both the reasons sustained by purely healthcare or public hygiene arguments, and those that established an intimate bond between the sanitary system and the develpment of labour forces.