St.maarten – The St. Maarten Medical Center has been involved in the new hospital project from the beginning, including the development of the terms of reference and the evaluation of the different proposals received from the open tender process, SMMC-Director Kees Klarenbeek said in a press statement.
“Many staff members from the SMMC have been involved in the planning and development of the new hospital project and we are very comfortable that this is the right hospital for St Maarten,” Klarenbeek said. “Additionally, as part of the evaluation team of the bids, we are comfortable that the quality specified by the company INSO either meets or exceeds the standards that we have established. The staff of the SMMC have been promised a new hospital several times and we are looking forward to this finally becoming a reality.”
A new hospital is necessary as the existing hospital is too small and no longer meets the functionality requirements of today’s vision on modern healthcare. Furthermore the St. Maarten Medical Center building is old and expensive to maintain.
The Tripartite – a collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health, Social and Health insurance agency SZV and SMMC – are working together to make it possible to develop hospital care, including building a new hospital. This partnership is a new approach which benefits citizens and surrounding Islands.
SMMC is the general hospital that guarantees high quality hospital care, based on patients’ needs to residents and visitors of and her surrounding islands, close to home.
“The SMMC will offer quality care based on patients’ needs also called the “care demand model,” Klarenbeek stated. “The care demand is specifically researched and tailored with the contribution of the medical specialist of SMMC for the local situation. Based on the outcomes of the research, new specialties will be introduced and action has to be taken to make it possible to let existing specialties grow in volume. New specialties such as neurology, urology, orthopedics and ophthalmology will be introduced. Expanding and increasing the services makes it possible to offer 90% of the hospital care close to home and will reduce discomfort for patients and their relatives.”
Medical Center fully supports plans for new hospital
