The first attending physicians of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in La Serena and the organization of the sanitary taxation in the mid-19th century.

Abstract

The article analyzes the arrival of attending physicians in the province of Coquimbo between 1840 and 1870. Through communication with the physicians assigned to the San Juan de Dios Hospital of La Serena, the modernization of the medical practice in a local space is confirmed, characterized by the gradual installation of sanitary taxation. The study's methodology was based on direct research in documents from the National Historical Archive of Chile. Thus, it was found that in the context of a mining export boom, it was necessary to modernize an infrastructure that would accompany the welfare policies before consolidating the republic. Based on the evidence, it is postulated that the political authorities and the physicians in charge of the hospital tended to control and eradicate the informal practice of medicine and pharmacology. Finally, we note the intention of the physicians to generate an orderly public healthcare system.