Update Country Report Curaçao 29 Aug 2017

Event

The health ministers of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have reached an agreement to co-operate on healthcare facilities and development programmes in the sector. This is expected pave the way for the three countries to develop areas of healthcare specialisations, while maintaining centres of treatment for citizens of all countries.

Analysis

The deal followed a two-day summit in late July between the three ministers held in Sint Maarten. Sint Maarten's health minister, Emil Lee, stated that various meetings had been held between government officials, private healthcare advisors and health insurance representatives to reach agreement on technical and practical aspects of the tri-national co-operation.

Mr Lee stated that the hospitals in each country would now focus on becoming "centres of excellence" in particular areas, allowing other hospitals to develop different specialisms. For example, Curaçao has a recently upgraded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which will now care for babies from all three countries. This does not mean that all capability in other countries will be lost, as sometimes patients cannot be moved. However, the main expertise will be located in one area and in severe cases medical staff, rather than patients, can be flown between the islands.

This ambitious programme is expected to reduce the burden on the health systems of each country by spreading it between all three. However, logistical details will need to be put in place before the three can move towards a cohesive mutual healthcare system. In particular, ensuring that all hospitals in the three islands have compatible equipment, policies and training will be necessary before patients can be transferred between them as standard.

In addition, patient registration and insurance eligibility will also have to be harmonised. In this regard, during the recent summit Sint Maarten joined an existing healthcare insurance co-operation agreement between Curaçao and Aruba that will permit the free exchange of data between the three countries.

The co-operation agreement should bring benefits for patient care in Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten as well as developing the expertise in the regional healthcare sector, potentially attracting more external funding and investment. Synchronisation of healthcare norms also bodes well for ongoing efforts to forge a common approach to trade and investment negotiations.

Impact on the forecast

The developments do not imply any changes to our fiscal or GDP growth forecasts. But they mark a step forward in regional co-operation in both the healthcare sector and economic affairs.