Minister the Weever stated, in reaction to the statements made by Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Mr. R. Plasterk in the Daily Herald last Saturday, with regards to Governance issues at SMMC that ended the specialist cooperation that he is fully aware thereof. This matter has my full attention.
Great efforts have been and are still continuously being made by both my Ministry and the Inspectorate of Health to address these issues. These efforts have resulted in the placement by the Health Inspectorate of SMMC under intensified supervision and the subsequent issuance of 14 orders by the Heath Inspectorate to SMMC, to address amongst others several governance matters, or else pay significant fines. One of these measures was the much discussed measure to either terminate the contract with Dr. Scot, or terminate the contract with his consultancy firm ANG Consulting N.V. Although SMMC is still opposing all the imposed measures through litigation, it has meanwhile complied with some of them. There has consequently been some improvement. There is however still much work to do and I can only hope that, with the appointment of a new interim director of SMMC recently, the era of constant opposition and litigation by SMMC, will be replaced with the much needed collaboration, dialogue and decisive actions, so that our combined efforts can promptly resolve the existing issues. The cooperation with AMC and VUmc is important for both St. Maarten and our sister islands Saba and St. Eustatius. Conditions must be set for the prompt realization hereof.