by TIAGO RAMIREZ BAQUERO
In March, 200 workers were dismissed from the Laura Bonaparte Hospital as part of Milei’s drastic cuts to the country’s public budget. Mental health care has deteriorated, having dire effects on patients.
Psychologist María José Conforti finished her workday after 12 intense hours in mental health emergency services. It was a very long day because in the morning she had medical examinations, a requirement every year to be employed at the Laura Bonaparte Mental Health Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Five minutes after the end of the workday, her employer, the Health Ministry, sent her a letter in her mailbox firing her. The dismissal came without prior notice and the message was “totally depersonalized.”
Conforti worked in the adolescent service and in immediate urgent care, and is one of a large group of 200 employees at the Laura Bonaparte Hospital in Buenos Aires who were laid off at a moment’s notice in March 2025. She is the product of the chainsaw of Javier Milei, the Argentine president who has pushed for drastic budget cuts. In October 2024 there were some signs of the layoffs, when the government said in an official statement that it would initiate a “restructuring plan” at Bonaparte Hospital. According to the government, the hospital has an average annual admission of 19 patients per day, and they considered this number very low for such a large hospital.
The Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado (ATE), one of the oldest trade union associations in Argentina, disapproves of Milei’s layoffs. “So far this year Bonaparte Hospital has provided care to more than 25,000 people,” said Amelia Rebori, a graduate in social work in the hospital’s pediatric division and member of the union, who also condemns the government’s layoffs. “The layoffs represent 47 percent of the total hospital staff. In the children’s area, 106 children were left overnight without comprehensive mental health treatment,” Rebori added.
Milei’s Attacks on Public Health
These layoffs are significant, as Argentina has had a strong law in force since 2013 protecting mental health services. The Comprehensive Mental Health Law, Law 26.657, requires the government to implement a comprehensive mental health system involving psychologists and psychiatrists to work together with music therapists, art therapy graduates, and social workers. There are several specific requirements for the whole country: the patient has the autonomy to decide about their treatment, such as deciding whether or not to use medication and whether to opt for alternative therapy. The law also mandates that hospitalization is only mandatory if the patient poses a risk to their social circle and community, a person cannot be excluded from employment due to their mental health condition, and voluntary hospitalization is the last option—in extreme cases, there is forced hospitalization. “This is because it is critical that patients not only work solely with psychologists, but with a variety of mental health professionals to heal and integrate into society. They fired all the social workers, they fired the occupational therapists, the music therapists,” said Rebori.
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