The government seems The track to be completely very much with regard to the direction she wants to go with health care in the country. There is no money to offer citizens the most optimal care. Almost daily there are reports about another institution that stands up to the lips, care workers who are not paid or insufficiently paid or operations that cannot continue because the most basic materials are not there.
Although the problems in healthcare were already great when the government was appointed – at the start of the Coronapandemie – she did not do enough to turn the tide. This can mainly be put into the shoes of Minister Amar Ramadhin of Health. He has continuously extinguished fires and provided only very few real solutions.
Because of that mystery, which this government uses more often, it seems to be a very vague deal that is being closed
Often the minister does not comply with agreements either. In that respect, his successor, who is likely to come after the elections, has a thankless task to regain confidence in the sector and, above all, to guarantee that every citizen is given the care he or she is entitled to.
For example, anyone walking around in the Paramaribo Academic Hospital has been encountering various construction activities at the complex for years. There seems to be no shot in that and it is extremely annoying for both patients and visitors. This all happens in the context of the expansion and upgrading of the hospital.
But how this work relates to the planned new construction of the Academic Medical Center – which must rise in the same place and for which this government wants to borrow at least one hundred million US dollars in the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) – is unknown. Are all renovations that are now being carried out, then not a waste of money, time and energy?
Last week the message suddenly came out that President ChandrikaPersad Santokhi granted a permit to the completely unknown name -free company Vasumed for setting up and operating a private hospital that will rise to the Roblesweg commissioner. The company would have a collaboration with Apollo Hospital Enterprises Limited from India, which has set up hospitals in various countries.
This permit was apparently granted sneaks by the government, almost no one from the sector was even aware of it. The National Assembly is also not informed at all. Because of that mystery, which this government uses more often, it seems to be a very vague deal that is closed. First of all, it is not known who is behind NV Vasumed (Ten).
It is really incomprehensible that investors are brought in without consultation with the sector, while healthcare is collapsing. Will the existing institutions not suffer from the arrival of a ‘competitor’?
What exactly the usefulness and role will be of the private hospital in national health care is also unclear. And can ‘normal’ Surinamese use the services they will offer for the rates in this country or with their usual insurance?
Where to the Roblesweg commissioner will be the new hospital and who is the land they are going to build on? What is the staffing being, while Suriname is already struggling with a huge brain drain? Will hundreds of employees come across from Asia? Where will they be housed, while there is already great housing shortage?
These are all questions that must be given a clear answer to Santokhi very quickly to remove new unrest in society. Until that time, this looks like the umpteenth fable of this government, which does not benefit health care – and ultimately also the country.
