PHILIPSBURG – On Friday August 16th, Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin in her new role as Acting Minister of Public Health, Social Development & Labor Affairs (VSA) paid a working visit to the Sint Maarten Medical Center (SMMC).
During the working visit at the SMMC, Acting Minister of VSA Romeo Marlin and the SMMC Management Team led by SMMC Director Kees Klarenbeek focused their talks primarily on the current state of affairs surrounding the dialysis department and the ability of SMMC to maintain the highest quality of medical care to its dialysis patients.
Recently, the number of dialysis patients have increased while the number of nurses that are trained to work in the dialysis department have decreased. As a result, the management of SMMC have taken a number of decisions to remedy this situation. In the interim, to ensure the quality of medical care, three dialysis patients have been referred to overseas medical institutions while the SMMC Nursing Department are directing five registered nurses towards certified training in dialysis care to increase capacity.
Discussions are also taking place to bring about a structural working agreement with the medical services on French Sint Maarten to seek the possibility of having dialysis patients tap into similar services next door, in order to avoid the more expensive overseas medical referrals.
Additionally SMMC informed Minister Romeo Marlin that in the meantime two new dialysis stations have been added to the overall inventory to ensure that when the new nurses have completed their training, there will be sufficient capacity and quality medical care to meet the demand of the medical services at SMMC.
