Participants in the healthcare seminar in St. Eustatius.
SABA/ST. EUSTATIUS--To address the challenges with medical referrals for the residents of Saba and St. Eustatius and the general sentiment among residents of these islands about healthcare, Care and Youth Caribbean Netherlands ZJCN organised a seminar last week, together with colleagues from St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC), St. Eustatius Health Care Foundation (SEHCF) and Saba Cares. The two-day seminar was aimed at improving the process of medical referrals in the Windward Islands.
Recently, much attention has been paid to the provision of care in the Windward Islands. Healthcare in the Windwards Islands is a challenge, because secondary care may not be provided there and, therefore, patients are often dependent on medical referrals.
Medical referrals for insured parties in Saba and Statia pose logistical, organisational and communication challenges, which causes a strain on patients.
Seminar participants addressed these challenges with the aim of improving the process of medical referrals. Prior to the two-day seminar, information was collected from the various medical institutions, the public entities St. Eustatius and Saba and insured persons.
Some of the important conclusions from this seminar are that there must be better communication with insured persons from ZJCN, SMMC, SEHCF and Saba Cares. There will be more cooperation in this area between partners to keep the public well informed and the ZJCN offices should become more visible and accessible.
ZJCN and the care providers in Saba and Statia have agreed to start a pilot programme to make referrals to SMMC easier and more transparent. The protocol for medical evacuations must be unambiguous for all involved and reinforced, it was agreed.
Information about access times for treatment and/or consultation with various specialists must be made available to the insured persons. The access time for a cardiologist, for example, is different from the access time at the urologist, and patients must be informed about this. This information is currently not available.
During the past week, ZJCN also organised meetings on both islands where citizens could talk to the complaints officer. In the near future, ZJCN will create more opportunities for citizens to make their complaints known in an accessible manner. It was also agreed that the complaints officers of SEHCF, Saba Cares, SMMC and ZJCN will work more closely together.
A number of insured persons were invited to share their experiences with seminar participants. These experiences helped provide the participants with a better understanding of the changes needed to improve the quality of medical referrals for the residents of Saba and Statia.
