Willemstad, CURAÇAO – During his recent trip to Curaçao, Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor Emil Lee met with the Minister of Public Health, Environment and Nature in Curaçao Siegfried Victorina, to understand what lessons had been learned in regard to the construction of their new hospital and health care cooperation within the Kingdom
“In our desire to spend the people’s money wisely, we should learn from others what they did right and what they did wrong. We are incorporating lessons that the Ministry of Health has learned in the process of building a new hospital in Curaçao, and are modifying our process accordingly,” stated Minister Lee.
With the construction of the new hospital in Curaçao much of their cost was in the planning stages rather than the construction stages. “One of the recommendations given to us is that we should build transparency and accountability into the agreement when building our new St. Maarten Medical Center. Unfortunately in Curacao, it was very much based on trust and good will.”
Minister Lee also took the opportunity to tour their new hospital construction site, which is large and will have approximately 300 beds.
Also discussed with Minister Victorina was quality control on health care. Curaçao has a committee for all of their referrals abroad. They also conduct medical peer reviews. Minister Lee believes that this can be another area of cooperation between the Ministries. “We would also like to look into coordinated purchasing where by bulking our purchases together, we hope that St. Maarten can negotiate better prices for the referrals of our patients abroad, medical equipment, and the exchange of specialists, which can give us specialties in a cost friendly manner,” the Minister concluded.
