WILLEMSTAD - The Advent Hospital fears that the hospital will have to close at the end of this year if something is not done quickly about the rates and appointment of new medical staff. Director Cenaida Panneflek expressed her concerns about the situation in a televised interview.
In 2020, the government promised that a budget would be set for Advent, just like with the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC). Advent, however, did not agree with the amount negotiated two years ago. The hospital is still reimbursed on the basis of the 2001 rates of the Social Insurance Bank (SVB).
Panneflek states that the budget would be provisionally allocated in January 2022 until proper price calculations have been made. According to the director, the budget would be paid in April. That didn't happen. “All ministers have indicated that it is impossible to continue like this and yet little is happening,” said Panneflek.
In addition, specialists who are 65 or older must stop working because of the new legislation. Many staff have also exchanged Advent for the CMC. “We are dealing with a huge understaffing. We lost 45 percent of the clinical staff who went to work for the CMC for a higher salary when it opened its doors," said Panneflek.
According to the director, Advent has tried to attract people from abroad, but the Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature (GMN) refuses to sign the ministerial order for this.