Philipsburg:--- The Inspectorate of Health and Labour has no intention of budging on his position regarding the higher supervision that was placed at the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) since September 8th, 2012. SMN News has been reliably informed that Dr. Earl Best has informed Attorney at Law Maarten Le Poole that the Inspectorate is within its rights to place the medical institution under higher supervision until the Supervisory Board and Management of the institution comes up with an action plan for St. Maarten Medical Center. During the period of higher supervision, the Inspectorate can conduct unannounced inspections at least three times per month.Dr. Scot requested an extension of ten days on the day of the deadline to respond to the draft report. According to a letter dispatched to the SMMC on September 8th, 2012, the Inspector General informed the SMMC Medical Director Dr. George Scot that despite receiving the draft report on the investigation that was conducted at the institution, he did not distribute the report to the specialists that are working at the institution until more than a week and half after he received the draft report. Furthermore, some of the specialists had to basically run behind Dr. Scot to obtain the report. The letter sent to the Medical Director further states that based on many critical findings that needed to be addressed, necessary measures had to be taken regarding quality of health care and patient safety, thus the inspectorate decided to put the institution under higher supervision for a period of one year. This means that the board of directors would have to present a solid and feasible action plan to the inspectorate within two weeks which would address the critical issues at the SMMC. The inspectorate will also conduct announced and unannounced inspections at least three times per month as they follow up on the action plan.
Should the SMMC not comply with the stipulations of the higher supervision, they can be fined or the inspectorate can close specific functional units at SMMC. The higher supervision placed on SMMC was not based on administrative law and as such objections cannot be raised neither can the medical institution file an appeal against the decision of the Inspector General.
It should be noted that the Inspector General of Curacao closed the operation room of SMMC sometime in 2004 when one of the specialists working at the institution penned him a letter and also sent some photographs to the inspectorate to show the deplorable conditions of the operation room at SMMC. SMN News further learnt that LICCOM was contracted to repair the operation room before it could have been inspected and reopened. During that time, emergency cases were sent to the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital for treatment.
While the SMMC is under higher supervision and the attorney representing SMMC is threatening to file an injunction to order the inspectorate to lift the higher supervision that was placed on the institution, the Medical Director of SMMC left the island last week Friday to the Netherlands. According to the letter sent to the Medical Director, a follow up meeting will take place next week, since two weeks were given to present the action plan. SMN News also learnt that the Parliament of St. Maarten will be proceeding with a parliamentary inquiry against the institution since neither the supervisory council nor the board of directors has complied with their request to meet with Members of Parliament.
