CAY HILL--The St. Maarten General Hospital will break ground in early December, Health Minister Emil Lee told Members of Parliament (MPs) during an urgent meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament on Friday.
The main hospital building is expected to be finished in 2022, and the full building by 2023. Lee said the new hospital will mean a dramatic reduction in overseas referrals, higher efficiency and better quality control.
He said financing by budget rather than tariffs per treatment will give the hospital incentives for cost control.
The new state-of-the-art hospital will have a gross surface of 15,387square metres and have 110 inpatient beds, an increase from the current 66 beds at St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC). The 110 beds will include eight ICU/CCU special care beds, 48 medical surgical beds, 38 mother-and-child beds and 16 day-care beds. Additionally, there will be three operating theatres, of which two will be general operating rooms and one will be a multifunctional intervention radiology cardiology (MIRC) room.
There will also be four outpatient clusters; a dialysis clinic with up to 30 positions; a radiology department including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); two general practitioner clinics at the Emergency Room; and a helideck platform to allow helicopters to land and take off. The new facility will also have a pharmacy. The employee base for the new hospital will consist of approximately 400 full-time employees.
