MARIGOT:--- The Health Observatory of St.Martin was created in October 2010 under the leadership of the Collectivité of St. Martin. This project was born of a cooperation between the Collectivité, the Government of Sint Maarten and Louis Constant Fleming Hospital. It is financed with European INTERREG IV Caribbean funds. The general meeting held on Friday, September 4, 2015 helped to formalize the functioning of the association that rules the Health Observatory.
The mission of the Health Observatory is to conduct public surveys and health studies on the both sides of the island in order to inform local institutions on priority needs for the population. The Health Observatory must facilitate the establishment of a mapping of chronic diseases and put in place adapted treatments and patient care protocols. Because of the very important mission of the Health Observary, the Collectivité and the government of Sint Maarten are determined to see the results of this cooperation project.
Dr. Louis Jeffry, president of the association ‘Health Observatory of Saint-Martin’ held an extraordinary general meeting on Friday september 4, with the active members of the observatory and the elected officials of the french Collectivité, Ramona Connor and Rosette Gumbs-Lake, and the Health Minister of Sint Maarten, Rita Bourne-Gumbs, the member of Parliament Cornelius de Weever and the Director of the French Regional Health Agency Pascal Godefroy.
As mentioned by Dr. Jeffry, the Health Observatory is now ready for its missions of collecting, analyzing and coordinating the health, social and epidemiological data. Following this work, the Observatory will present its recommendations to the Collectivité and the government of Sint Maarten.
The amount of € 578,777 was planned in favor of the Health observatory, the Collectivité of Saint-Martin has, firstly, given € 200,000 to start the studies for 2015.
For the vice president Ramona Connor, in charge of Social Affairs for the Collectivité of St. Martin, this cooperation project is part of the social program of her government. The Territorial Health Plan and Health Plan for Youth signed with the French Regional Health Agency in 2014, are also two major parts of this program. The Vice-President also mentioned other actions implemented by the Collectivité, like the forthcoming creation of a fitness and Health trail and the measures of health taken in school restaurants. She concluded by welcoming the good synergy with leaders of the Dutch side for this project. The Collectivité of Saint-Martin now expects to see the first results of the Observatory’s work.
