Why fool the people of St. Maarten that a new hospital is going to be built when only an expansion is being planned for the SMMC which is already four (4) years old for about 25 million guilders.
CAY HILL:--- We have known for many years that St. Maarten would need an expansion to the existing hospital based on the growth of our population as well as to accommodate if not totally, partially in the event of a major disaster with one of the major airlines or cruise ships. The OSPP has stated from day one that there must be better cooperation between the existing St. Maarten Medical Center and the Louis Fleming Hospital on the Northern side. Even though there might be some type of cooperation between these two medical centers it is not far reaching enough.
The OSPP has noticed that on many of the billboards of the UP it is stated that a new hospital will be built and that this is the brainchild of the party. Low and behold when you go back and do some research you will realize that there has been discussion about an expansion of the St. Maarten Medical Center dating back to the year 2009, during the tenure of the former Director of the center, Dr. Scott. If our information serves us right this expansion was put on bid and the local contractor Licom NV had won the bid but to date the contract was not awarded to the company. Everything is coming right back to us. The equipment of this company has been lying on the premises of the hospital for some time now and the public was wondering if they had leased part of the premises of the hospital to store their equipment.
Four years later and the price for the expansion have jumped to 50 million guilders, an increase of 100%. Does this increase of 25 million guilders include the purchasing of state of the art equipment and training of the personnel? Or is it just construction and other related cost? Would a new bidding process take place or is it the plan to maintain the company that had won the bid in the past for the expansion of the hospital?
In order to obtain clarification on this matter, if it is an expansion or a complete new hospital we have forwarded a letter to Minister Cornelius de Weever who is responsible for health.
We hope that the minister in his wisdom would see it fitting to reply as soon as possible to bring some clarity on this matter. St. Maarten let's get serious.
The OSPP supports the expansion of the St. Maarten Medical Center by adding a new wing but would want to evaluate the additional 25 million guilders increase over the original price tag of 25 million guilders.
Click here to view letter sent to Minister Cornelius de Weever on SMMC.
