WILLEMSTAD – Opposition party PAR says years of political decisions surrounding the National Ordinance on Top Incomes (LNT) unfairly targeted medical specialists, harmed healthcare on Curaçao, and discouraged local professionals from returning to serve the island.
In a strongly worded statement, PAR faction leader Quincy Girigorie reacted to the recent decision by the Ministers of Health and Finance to approve salary adjustments for medical specialists in an effort to improve healthcare accessibility and reduce long waiting lists.
According to Girigorie, the decision confirms what PAR has argued for years: that applying the LNT salary cap to medical specialists was a mistake that negatively affected the quality and availability of healthcare on the island.
The PAR leader pointed to long waiting times for specialist care, saying patients often wait months for appointments with neurologists and other specialists. Those who can afford it, he said, increasingly travel to Colombia for medical treatment, while others are forced to remain on waiting lists and suffer at home.
Girigorie cited positive recommendations from experts who concluded that adjusting specialist salaries is both necessary and justified as part of broader efforts to improve healthcare quality. According to those findings, the measure could help reduce waiting lists by attracting new specialists and retaining existing medical professionals.
He also stated that studies showed the salary adjustments would have only limited financial consequences and would not place additional pressure on the country’s budget or healthcare funds.
PAR questioned why the government only reached that conclusion in 2026, arguing that it has now become clear the measure would not cost taxpayers extra money while significantly improving healthcare capacity.
Girigorie stressed that PAR has always supported the LNT in principle for directors of government-owned companies, whose salaries the party considered excessively high for a small island like Curaçao. However, he said PAR consistently opposed applying the law to medical specialists because of the negative impact on healthcare services.
The statement also contained direct criticism of former Minister Javier Silvania, accusing him of pursuing what PAR described as an unjust political battle against specialists because the president of the medical association at the time was allegedly linked to PAR.
According to Girigorie, local professionals who studied abroad and chose to return to Curaçao to serve the country were unfairly portrayed as being motivated only by money, something he called false and damaging.
PAR says the current government and advisory bodies now effectively acknowledge that earlier decisions were wrong and harmed both healthcare and local professionals.
The party welcomed Health Minister Tyron Boekhoudt’s decision to prioritize public health over what PAR called “political caprice” and expressed hope that further studies could eventually lead to the medical sector being exempted entirely from the LNT framework.
Quincy Girigorie signed the statement in his capacity as PAR faction leader.