Dutch State Secretary Raymond Knops (seventh left), Head of the Representation of the Netherlands in St. Maarten Chris Johnson (third right), Chairman of SMMC’s Supervisory Council Robert-Jan James (second left) and Medical Director Dr. Felix Holiday (fifth left) pose in front of SMMC’s Auxiliary Care Facility (ACF) with Dutch delegation members, members of SMMC’s Outbreak Management Team and AMI medical staff.
CAY HILL--St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) gave Dutch State Secretary Raymond Knops and his delegation a tour of its Auxiliary Care Facility (ACF) on Thursday, January 7.
Before touring the ACF, Knops and his delegation were given a presentation regarding the construction of the various COVID-19 facilities since the start of the pandemic and how these evolved over time: from the emergency erection of the intensive care unit (ICU) Tent and the Mobile Medical Pavilion to the transfer of the ICU Tent to the Asha Stevens Hillside Christian School gym hall at the start of the 2020 hurricane season, while simultaneously constructing the current ACF, SMMC announced on Friday.
Also discussed was the construction of St. Maarten General Hospital (SMGH), as the design upgrade to become category-five-plus hurricane-resistant was made possible by a grant from the St. Maarten Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience Trust Fund funded by the Netherlands and managed by the World Bank.
The financial impact on the hospital in 2020 due to SMMC having to downscale non-emergency care on two separate occasions as a result of the local COVID-19 surges was also highlighted.
Parties were satisfied with the cooperation agreement made since the start of the pandemic with other hospitals within the Dutch Caribbean in coordination with the Dutch Ministry of Health VWS, aimed at leveraging each other’s areas of strength.
According to the release, the ACF was created by welding together shipping containers and special medically outfitted Hospitainers donated by the Dutch Ministry of Health, and securely anchoring them to a solid concrete foundation. The ACF is located across from SMMC and features 16 beds, six of which are ICU and 10 are medium-care.
The ACF project was made possible in part by the Trust Fund funded by the Netherlands and managed by the World Bank.
SMMC extended its gratitude to its employees, the government of St. Maarten, the Dutch Ministry of Health, the World Bank and the AMI team for all of their contributions to the health and well-being of the people of St. Maarten.
