Just months after taking the top post at the Dominican Republic’s National Health Service (NHS), executive director Julio Landrón has triggered a widespread leadership overhaul across the country’s public hospital network, with at least five senior directors removed from their posts in Greater Santo Domingo alone between January and May 2026.
Landrón assumed his role as NHS head on January 9, 2026, and quickly launched an unannounced oversight strategy: surprise on-site inspections of public healthcare facilities across the nation. The evaluations that followed these visits have resulted in a wave of leadership changes, including involuntary dismissals and voluntary resignations from long-tenured hospital directors.
The first high-profile departure came in February, when Dr. Armando José Holguín Núñez—who had led the Salvador Bienvenido Gautier Hospital since May 2023—was removed from his position. Dr. Mingkingüeis Maarlem was immediately appointed to fill the vacant director role.
Weeks later, in early March, Willi E. Victoria Ramírez, who had served as director of Marcelino Vélez Santana Hospital since October 2020, stepped down without offering a public explanation for his resignation. A new leadership trio stepped in to replace him: Dr. Freddy Amaury took over as director, while Drs. Rafael Lachapelle and Carlos Almonte Ceballos assumed deputy director positions.
A third leadership change in the capital region unfolded on May 8, when Landrón presided over the swearing-in of Andy De León Valenzuela as the new head of the Doctor Darío Contreras Traumatological Hospital. Outgoing director Joselin Valdez Offter, who had held the role only since December 2025, was reassigned to a new position as supervisor for all facilities in the National Traumatology Network. Valdez Offter had previously replaced Dr. César Augusto Roque Beato, who led the hospital for five years before stepping aside.
Two more capital-region hospitals got new leaders in recent weeks: Henry Mesa was sworn in as director of the Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia University Maternity Hospital (Humnsa), while Ernesto Rodríguez took over leadership of the Engombe Municipal Hospital. Rodríguez replaces Dr. Carmen Nurys Mateo, who had managed the Engombe facility since 2021.
The leadership overhaul is not limited to the Santo Domingo metropolitan area: regional and municipal hospitals across the country’s interior have also seen senior leadership changes under Landrón’s new administration.
In Cotuí, Sánchez Ramírez, Landrón inaugurated Dr. Simón Bautista as head of the Ramón Báez Municipal Hospital and Dr. Adderly Rodríguez Pichardo as director of the Inmaculada Concepción Provincial Hospital. In Villa Los Almácigos, Santiago Rodríguez, Pedro Muñoz Vásquez and Rosalina Bernard Jiménez were appointed to fill the new director and deputy director roles, respectively. Most recently, Catalina Fabián was named the new director of the Ángel Contreras Provincial Hospital in Monte Plata.
Beyond individual hospital leadership posts, Landrón has also made new appointments to specialized national healthcare networks. Manuel Tadeo Escarramán was sworn in as coordinator of the Peripheral Oncology Network, while Víctor Cabrera García took over leadership of the national Diabetic Foot Network.