Willemstad October 28th, 2021 – Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) will restart with elective care for SVB
patients on Monday, November 1st. This decision was made after receiving the news that the Minister of
Health sent instructions to SVB to transfer funds to CMC. The official letter from SVB to CMC arrived on
Wednesday evening. In this letter, SVB indicates that it will transfer ANG 4.1 million as an advance payment
this week to cover the expenses related to SVB patients in the coming month.
It is important to note that the advanced payment of ANG 4.1 million will not suffice to cover expenses
related to SVB patients through the end of the year, however it does create space to immediately restart
the services. As soon as CMC received the news about the available funds, its planning department
immediately activated and started planning the process to contact SVB patients on the waiting list to
schedule their necessary treatments. The total number of patients on the waiting list for the hospital is
1,636 of which 1,529 are SVB patients. CMC’s goal is to reduce this waiting as fast as possible. Most
patients on the waiting list are for the following specializations: orthopedic surgery, general surgery and
gynecology.
An evaluation of the funds available will need to take place again toward the end of November to
determine if there are enough funds to continue providing the above-mentioned care in December.
