This combined better inter-sector co-ordination between the SSA and the SS providers and the government’s first attempt to decentralise SSA services by transferring responsibility' for health care to the states, which was to be the first wave of a longer decentralisation process. It was at this time (1983) that a constitutional amendment was passed, giving each individual the right to health protection and from which the General Health Law was derived. As part of these changes, the Ministry of Public Health and Assistance changed its name to the Ministry of Health (Secretaria de Salud).