WILLEMSTAD – Nearly 29 beds at the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) are currently occupied by patients who have completed their medical treatment but cannot be discharged because there are insufficient places available in nursing homes, hospices, and other long-term care facilities.
According to the hospital, the situation has become a structural bottleneck within Curaçao’s healthcare system and is affecting the flow of patients throughout the entire care chain.
CMC said that because medically discharged patients remain in hospital beds, fewer beds are available for new admissions. As a result, waiting times increase and planned treatments and surgeries must sometimes be postponed.
The hospital described the situation as serious, warning that it is having a direct impact on the accessibility of both acute and specialized healthcare services.
“When patients who are ready to leave the hospital cannot be transferred in a timely manner to an appropriate follow-up care facility, a chain reaction is created that affects the capacity of the entire healthcare system,” CMC explained.
According to the hospital, some patients remain at CMC for months beyond the point at which their medical treatment has been completed because suitable alternative accommodations are unavailable.
The issue highlights growing pressure on Curaçao’s healthcare infrastructure, particularly in the areas of elderly care, rehabilitation, palliative care, and long-term residential care.
To draw attention to the problem, CMC has dedicated a new episode of its podcast series, Puntra un Eksperto (“Ask an Expert”), to the challenges surrounding hospital bed capacity. In the episode, the manager of Capacity Planning and a nurse from the Oncology Department discuss how the lack of available follow-up care placements affects both patient care and daily hospital operations.
CMC is calling for a coordinated response across the healthcare sector to improve patient transfers, expand capacity in long-term care facilities, and reduce pressure on hospital resources.
Hospital officials stress that solving the problem will require cooperation among healthcare providers, care institutions, policymakers, and other stakeholders to ensure that patients receive care in the most appropriate setting while preserving hospital capacity for those requiring acute medical treatment.