WILLEMSTAD - The Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) was inaugurated only eighteen months, but already seems to be unable to keep its head above water. The hospital is about to collapse financially.

CMC is still temporarily kept alive with an advance from the government and by ceasing the lease payments for the building. But CMC has simply run out of funds.

The hospital's attorney is quoted saying the covid pandemic is the main reason the hospital is still open today. During a pandemic, the only general hospital in Curaçao, CMC tries with all possible means to prevent shutting down, the lawyer says, but "the plasters and the bandages are literally and figuratively gone".

Tomorrow is an important day for the hospital. Then the judge will rule in the case between the CMC and the Minister of Health. The point of conflict is a Ministerial Order by which the Minister may make corrections to the hospital budget. In other words: may cut back on expenses. According to the CMC, this is illegal. The hospital wants 100 percent of the actual costs to be paid by the government.

But the Health Minister fears that this will lead to an "uncontrollable rise in health care costs." After all, not only the hospital is in need of money, the Country itself is also short of money.