WILLEMSTAD - Minister of Health, Environment and Nature (GMN) Dorothy Pietersz-Janga has instructed the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) to provide the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) with an financial advance. This advance is intended to guarantee elective care.
Inspector Sirving Keli recently warned the hospital to resume elective care on October 25. Currently, there is a waiting list of 1,600 patients awaiting elective care. The CMC indicated again last Monday that they cannot provide elective care to SVB patients because otherwise other necessary care can no longer be guaranteed. The SVB has now given the hospital an advance of 5.3 million guilders for the elective care of SVB patients.
Pietersz-Janga also received a letter yesterday from the Foundation Federation of Healthcare Institutions. In this letter, the foundation indicates that the CMC attracts all the attention due to its financial problems, while aftercare plays a major role in healthcare. “As a result, patients leave the hospital faster, with the result that home care, rehabilitation care, care and nursing homes now have to take in more patients,” according to the foundation.
According to the federation, it will become more difficult to find motivated and expert personnel. “As a result, the workload increases and absenteeism, the waiting lists within healthcare increase and there is less care time for patients,” according to the foundation.
Pietersz-Janga has decided to cut the personnel costs of healthcare institutions by 12.5 percent. This is incomprehensible to the federation and the affiliated institutions. They request that the decision be reversed as soon as possible. “We argue for a salary survey in the public and semi-public sector, which will show that our employees already earn considerably less in terms of employment conditions than employees elsewhere and that there are many inequalities within the healthcare sector to the detriment of our employees,” the statement of the Federation of Healthcare Institutions said.