WILLEMSTAD - Despite a court decision and a report from an advisory committee of the Ministry of Health, Environment, and Nature, the government is reducing the budget for health care in 2021. The Board of Directors of the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) said during a press conference.
By reducing the budget, the CMC is facing a gap of 39 million guilders. This endangers the continuity of direct patient care.
Medical director Ingemar Merkies says the hospital still has funds for the next four weeks. "After that, the operational costs will then no longer be covered," Merkies said.
Interim director Gilbert Martina stated at the press conference that the Board of Directors will file a lawsuit against the Rhuggenaath government. This decision was made after the government established the new healthcare budget in a ministerial decision last week. "The decision will have to be suspended," said Martina.
The ministerial decision showed that the health care budget had been cut significantly, resulting in a deficit of 39 million guilders. This came as a big surprise to the Board of Directors, as the judge in an earlier ruling urged the government to rectify the earlier cut in the budget for 2019/2020.