Saba_probation_officer

Health on Saba.

Wednesday, 29 June 2011 20:33.

Dear Editor, Please allow me the opportunity to bring forward the following matter of concern, with the hope that this matter now being brought out in the media will receive some sort of attention from those responsible. As everyone knows, I am a person who suffers from a very critical health problem that lands me constantly in the hospital. I have been referred to go and have an MRI done and to date the Zorgverzekerings Kantoor (ZVK) on Bonaire has not granted the permission for me to go and have the MRI done. I am now waiting for the past four weeks and yet no answer from them with regard to me being able to go and have the MRI done. I have also been referred to go to Colombia, since in the month of March, to undergo a cardiology work-up and to date there is no approval from the ZVK on Bonaire. I have even laid in the hospital here on Saba for three weeks, awaiting the approval from this office on Bonaire, which seems not to understand that they are playing with the lives of innocent people. Honestly, I have no understanding why people have to pay their health care premiums and are still not able to obtain the necessary treatment that they are supposed to receive. People have to take pain killers for as long as this office does not make a final decision on patients being sent off-island. Saba is a small island and we do not have the expertise on-island that we can go to like in Holland. I firmly believe that all Sabans got to stand up now and demand some sort of respect for the people of this lovely island. Our fundamental human rights are now in jeopardy and this has to stop. I am hereby calling on everyone to come together and let us make our voices known via the media. People will soon have to die before they can be transferred to see the specialist that they need to see, in order to seek some solutions for the medical treatment. As Sabans, we are being treated unfairly by the Zorgverzekerings Kantoor on Bonaire. I see no reason why the office on Saba cannot be empowered to carry out the duties themselves for the Saba patients, like it was done formerly. Maria T. Cane-Lynch.

I was more upset to read this.