WILLEMSTAD, May 28, 2024 – Curaçao Medical Center [‘CMC’] has the potential for becoming the best hospital in the Caribbean. The hospital’s state-of-the-art equipment and highly capable medical and supporting staff contribute daily to this goal. However, the hospital encounters challenges daily of which the main one being its finances. Today, CMC hosted a press conference to provide the public with an update on its current situation. Present during this press conference were Mr. Gilbert Martina (CEO), Prof. Dr. Ingemar Merkies (CMO), and Ms. Karina Lombardi (CFOO) representing CMC, and Mr. Dito Garmers, CEO of CMC “Vastgoed & Beheer”. Topics during the press conference included financial reports, quality of care, KPMG research reports, waiting list for surgery and outpatient clinic appointments. CEO Mister Gilbert Martina stated that the current financial situation is very acute and requires immediate attention from the Government.
Mr. Martina stated that all financial reports have been finalized for year 2020, 2021, and 2022 and have been approved by the accountant. However, the current financial situation of CMC is very acute and requires immediate attention of the Government. CMC requires a sustainable solution for its financial challenges in order to keep supporting its current standard of care. Ms. Lombardi indicated that in order to keep operations running CMC will have to take measures in temporarily stopping elective care and continuing acute and essential care, should a resolution not be reached within the next two weeks.
Mr. Martina stated that the main reason for the deficit is due to the hospital rates and increase in demand for hospital care not being recognized.
CMC benchmarks itself with several hospitals in The Netherlands in order to measure its quality of care. An important measurement of evaluation of the quality of care as stated by Mr. Martina, is the mortality rate. The mortality rate at CMC is currently at an average of 2.38% as of the first quarter of 2024, which is below the industry average of 2.43% when compared to hospitals of similar size and type of care provided.
Furthermore, Mr. Martina highlighted that the current waitlist is due to adopting the waitlist from St. Elisabeth Hospital as well as the COVID crisis which caused a temporary hold on elective healthcare. Additionally, Mr. Martina states that the National Ordinance Standardizing high incomes (LNT – Landsverordering Normering Topinkomen) creates a challenge for recruitment of specialists, which also correlates to the current waitlists.
Overall, Mr. Martina and the Board of Directors of CMC are convinced that CMC has full potential to become the best hospital in the Caribbean as long as measures are taken towards increasing the hospital financing budget and creating a more optimal financing structure.
End of press release
