WILLEMSTAD - It is predicted that at least 40 specialists, if not more, will leave CMC by June 2024. This is related to the introduction of the Salary Cap Law, which will become applicable to specialists under contract at CMC starting in 2025. It concerns a group of specialists, with the application becoming effective for them as of 2025.
Former board member of the association of specialists, Vito Koeyers, is concerned. Without going into much detail, Koeyers confirmed that there is serious concern among them about what will happen in 2024. Reliable information indicates that at least 40 specialists at CMC are making arrangements to emigrate with their families to another country. This will happen between March and June 2024 so that their children can start school in another country during the corresponding school year. The specialists are still there because, for most of them, the salary cap's application will take place in 2025.
To avoid the effects on their income, the specialists have started to make their personal arrangements to leave Curaçao before the salary cap regulation comes into effect. As known, a number of specialists at Curaçao Medical Center have sent a clear message to management, indicating they are considering leaving. The uncertainty surrounding the law called "Landsverordening normering topinkomens (LNT)" for top staff in the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC), which has been in effect since last December, continues to cause problems for the hospital's operations. But the law is applicable to some specialists, while it will take effect for others in 2025.
The CMC board, in a letter addressed to the government (read Acting Minister of Health (GMN) and Finance, Javier Silvania) at the beginning of May, highlights the negative consequences. In letters dated February 13th and April 14th, the specialist association also called upon the government to pay attention to the negative consequences of the implementation of the Salary Cap Law (LNT) on the specialists in the CMC service and insisted on a short-term solution.
According to an amendment incorporated into the law, after three years, salaries of officials and advisers in the top positions of the public or semi-public sector that exceed the standard stipulated in the LNT will begin to decrease. As such, CMC sent a letter on February 7th, expressing its concerns about the significant impact that the LNT can have on the group of medical specialists in the CMC service and the guarantee of continuity and accessibility of care by attracting the desired specialists, which is currently not possible. They sent the letter from the perspective that CMC is also falling under the LNT, but according to the board, this doesn't align.
During a press conference in May at the Curaçao Medical Center, organized by the LVMPiLC specialist physician association, the salary capping law can remove between 30% and 60% of their income. It's a fact that specialist physicians are poorly paid worldwide when compared to the number of years they invest in their studies before entering a hospital and gaining the necessary years of experience.
Meanwhile, LVMPiLC has a new board and also has Albertico "Chos" Romero as an advisor. Minister Silvania posed for a picture in his office, where he confirmed that he would sit at the table with the "youngest" edition of specialists. However, while there's a change in the board, the "older" specialists are already making arrangements to emigrate to another country, where their current salary is guaranteed.