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www.sxmislandtime.com
 PHILIPSBURG - The Democratic Party (DP) of St. Maarten sent a letter to the Executive Council of St. Maarten through the Chairman, Lt. Governor Franklin Richards.
The letter addresses the concerns of the party about the diminishing state of gynecological care on St. Maarten, pointing out that the Executive Council is responsible for a proper functioning health care system on the island.
The letter to the Executive Council of St. Maarten reads;
The Executive Council of the Island Territory of St. Maarten, although not having the direct responsibility for the functioning of the St. Maarten Medical Center, still remains responsible for overall medical health care on St. Maarten. This responsibility of the Executive Council also entails ensuring that basic specialized medical care is available at all times at the St. Maarten Medical Center.
In this light your attention is asked for the situation whereby gynecology care at the St. Maarten Medical Center will be in jeopardy per March 8, 2010. The situation is as follows: Dr Petit for the past two years has not been executing any on call service for gynecology care. Dr Chong and Dr. Friday have been executing all on call services.
Dr. Chong per March 2010 will cease to operate his practice and will be departing St. Maarten. This will lead to only one gynecologist Dr. Friday being available to perform on call services at the St. Maarten Medical Center. Having one medical specialist handling his or her daily practice and also having to perform out clinic services for his or her patients and besides this also dealing with on call emergencies which is a 24 hours, 7 days per week situation for an extended period of time is not a desirable situation. Please take note of the statistics, that on Dutch St. Maarten in excess of 500 deliveries are done per year.
Based on the vacancies in accordance with the "Beroeps krachten planning" for medical specialist how many vacancies need to be filled in the field of gynecology?
Can the Executive Council inform the Island Council which measures has the Executive Council taken to attract one or more additional gynecologist to the Island in order to safeguard quality specialized medical care, especially taking into consideration after hours on call emergency gynecology care?
If no actions have been taken as yet, when does the Executive Council intend to pursue filling one or more of this specialized function in order to safeguard this much needed medical care on St. Maarten?
Does the Executive Council intend to come up with some sort of contingency plan in the event that the necessary vacancies for gynecologist cannot be filled by March 8, 2010?
It has become customary that over the past 8 months, concerns brought forward by members of the Island Council are not responded to by the Executive Council. These matter are matters of concern that the public of St. Maarten bring to our attention and failure by the Executive Council to address these issues are a direct neglect of the concerns of the voting population.
I look forward to an urgent response from the Executive Council on this matter as the lack of sufficient gynecology care on the Island can be to the detriment of the remaining care provider due to fatigue and other such factors, also to our female population on the island who are in the early and late stages of pregnancy and for those persons needing emergency gynecology care.
The letter concludes by stating that besides the aforementioned sufficient basic specialist care such as, gynecology care in any modern day society is not a luxury but a necessity.
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