~I do not intend to play politics with New General Hospital~ Mercelina
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VSA Emil Lee tells parliament that MP Mercelina referred to the BIG legislation on Monday when he called on him to have a legislation in place to allow foreign specialists to work on St. Maarten.
Lee said that a draft of the BIG legislation was prepared and that draft did not meet what St. Maarten wants and as such he sent it back to Public Health for review. What Lee did not tell Parliament is that the Department of Public Health did not work on the draft legislation, in fact the Department of Public Health did not have any input in the draft. The draft BIG legislation was prepared by the Inspectorate and when it was to be presented to healthcare stakeholders the department of Public Health and the Minister high jacked the draft and placed it in a drawer.
As for the New General Hospital (NGH) Lee said that there are a number of financiers both on Curacao and St. Maarten that are willing to invest in the construction of the hospital which the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) would have to pay back.
Lee further explained that the NGH has to meet JCI accreditations.
MP Mercelina also informed the Minister that he is not playing politics with the New General Hospital project but in fact that is a baby project for him since he is a doctor by profession. Mercelina asked the Minister if SMMC pay for the planned hospital if the intention then is to cut off a wing in order to get the NGH even if it is not in compliance with the agreement that was made from the inception.
Mercelina warned the Minister of VSA that he must first know the level of care St. Maarten wants the NGH to provide. He said so far the Minister neither SMMC did not correlate with stakeholders what type of services they want the NGH to provide. He said he is fearful that St. Maarten will invest a lot of money to construct the NGH then the services will be the same as SMMC.
He insisted that government must establish a policy for civil servants to pay for their medical care since for it is not fare for the private sector to pay for medical care for civil servants. Mercelina also called on the Dutch counterparts to realize that St. Maarten does not have the social institutions that can sustain the loses civil servants would have after the cuts are made.
