Background:

the years 1959 and 1960 were decisive in the projections and concretion of the social medical ideal, as an initiated process, to be established in Cuba.

Objective:

to identify the most relevant contributions of MD. Serafín Ruiz de Zárate Ruiz, as Minister of Public Health, to the conformation of the Cuban social medical ideal in the sixties of the 20th century.

Methods:

a historical documentary research was carried out in the year 2022. Theoretical methods were applied that allowed us to analyze the objective of the study, based on the interaction of the historical and the logical and from the temporal and spatial dimensions; and empirical ones: content analysis and bibliographic consultation to jointly process the resulting product, sources contrasting was used to improve the validity and reliability of the data obtained.

Results:

the appointment and action of MD. Ruiz de Zárate in front of the Ministry of Public Health laid the foundations and managed to advance, under an acute class struggle, in the path of modifying the hygienic-sanitary conditions of the population, possible only because of the Changes in medical conceptions from curative care to social.

Conclusions:

MD. Ruiz de Zárate as minister of public health made relevant contributions to the conformation of the social medical ideal. Diverse and extensive were the actions aimed at materializing it, specifically expressed in policies, laws, plans, measures, among others, which were overcome and strengthened with the same objective by MD. José Ramón Machado Ventura.

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