The original SMMC building under construction in Cay Hill 25 years ago.
CAY HILL--St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) is marking a milestone in its history with today’s celebration of its 25th year of operation catering to the healthcare needs of the community of St. Maarten and neighbouring islands.
The hospital will celebrate its anniversary with a number of events. The celebrations kick off today Thursday, March 17, with a Thanksgiving service for staffers, retirees and invited guests at SMMC from 4:00pm to 5:45pm.
The celebrations will continue on Sunday, March 20, with a Family Fun and Sports Day at the Little League Ballpark from 12:00pm to 5:00pm. Admission is free. The fun day will feature a host of fun activities for the entire family and children such as bouncy castles, traditional games and cotton candy. Food and drinks will be on sale.
The celebrations will culminate with a special luncheon at the Belair Community Center on World Health Day, on April 7. The luncheon, entitled “A lunch with your doctor,” will enable patrons to enjoy lunch with a SMMC doctor.
Persons can purchase a ticket and at the time of the purchase indicate what healthcare topic they would like to discuss. The patron will share a table with eight other persons and a doctor from SMMC, where they will get a chance to ask a doctor questions related to the medical issue they indicated at the time of their ticket purchase.
Doctors who will be participating in this event include Nephrologist Dr. Gil Gonzales, who will field questions on chronic kidney disease; Cardiologist Dr. Emiko Bird Lake, who will answer questions on heart disease; General Surgeon Dr. Menno Misset, who will speak about diabetic foot care; General Surgeon Dr. Felix Holiday; Oncologist Dr. Henk Wassenaar, who will speak about breast and colorectal cancer; Gynaecologist Dr. Dorette Courtar; Ear Nose and Throat specialist Dr. Anouk van Peteghem; Paediatrician Dr. Peter Offringa, who will answer questions on diabetes in children and Anaesthesiologist Dr. Yelena George, who will speak about epidural.
Tickets for the event “A lunch with your doctor” cost US $25 each and are available at SMMC. Tickets can also be purchased at the Family Fun and Sports Day on Sunday.
A cocktail event with officials will be held in June near SMMC’s inauguration date.
SMMC General Director Kees Klarenbeek said the anniversary is a significant one for the institution. “Healthcare is always developing and we have seen this in our 25 year history. We have seen many successes and the mere fact that we are celebrating 25 years shows that we have been there for the community for this length of time,” he said.
Klarenbeek said SMMC wanted the community to know it is proud of its history and being able to serve the community in the past two and a half decades. He said the hospital would not have been able to mark this significant milestone without the efforts of its committed staffers who are the engine behind the institution, its stakeholders and patients themselves.
He thanked these persons for making it possible for SMMC to serve the healthcare needs of the community over the past 25 years. As SMMC is celebrating the past, it is also looking forward to the future. He said making 25 years is an opportunity to learn from one’s mistakes and help the institution make better progress in the future.
A bird’s-eye view of the SMMC building back in the day.
SMMC opened its doors on March 17, 1991, as the successor to St. Rose Hospital, which was located in Philipsburg. The construction work on SMMC was completed in 1989 but, the first set of patients moved into the facility on March 17, 1991. The official inauguration took place on June 7.
SMMC started its operations two and a half decades ago with six fulltime specialists: Internist Dr. Theo Jolles; Surgeon Dr. F. Asin, Gynaecologist Dr. Michel Petit, Paediatrician Dr. M. Eerland, Radiologist Dr. M. Chin-A-Moei and Ophthalmologist Dr. Roger Allewart. Emergency room doctors were general practitioners Dr. G. Bryson, Dr. D. Illis, Dr. R. Soer and Dr. O. Arnold.
SMMC started with 96 fulltime employees, today the institution boasts 281 fulltime staffers; six specialists; four part-time emergency room doctors; 17 specialists; seven fulltime emergency doctors and three call-ups.
When SMMC opened in 1991 the bed capacity was 71 for a patient population of 23,000. The hospital’s bed capacity currently stands at 66 for a patient population of almost double what the institution originally catered to.
Also noteworthy, when SMMC was opened, there was one dialysis chair. This department is now one of the fastest growing in the hospital.
“Very soon we will begin allowing patients to receive peritoneal dialysis treatment at home. We have already started allowing some chemotherapy patients to get chemotherapy treatments from the comforts of their homes, with the use of chemotherapy infusion pumps which squeezes out the medication out of the balloon through a tubing via a catheter into the patient’s bloodstream,” said a hospital official.
“In the early years we had what some would call a living blood bank. When there was an emergency where we needed blood, there were persons in the community we would call to come in and donate blood. We even made announcements on the radio station in a serious emergency.
“Now we have an organised blood bank, with strict regulations. While the bed capacity in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has not increased, with technology, we are able to provide intensive care to critical care patients on the ward very near to the ICU.”
SMMC’s vision is to be the general hospital that guarantees high quality hospital care based on patients’ needs, to residents and visitors of St. Maarten and its surrounding islands, close to home.
