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Island Council rejects appeal for a new lab
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Oct 29, 2009 00:29 UTC
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~ DP members walk out during voting ~
PHILIPSBURG - By a five to zero vote in the Island Council on Tuesday, the council rejected the appeal by Health Care Laboratory St. Maarten (HCLS) to establish its own lab facility in St. Maarten.
The individual in the forefront of HCLS is a young local entrepreneur who studied abroad to become a Microbiologist Analyst. The individual filed for a business licence when the Democratic Party was in power, but the licence was denied and an appeal followed shortly thereafter.
Based on the law the practitioner must have a working arrangement with St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) to be able to have a private practice.
In the case of HCLS Leader of Government Commissioner William Marlin of the National Alliance (NA) said the current government was of the opinion that adding a new lab was not in the interest of the cost of public health.
Democratic Party leader Island Councilwoman Sarah Wescot-Williams referred to an advice to grant the permit, which was not attached in the documents submitted to the Island Council for it to make a decision on whether the permit should be issued.
For this reason the DP members did not vote on accepting or rejecting the appeal and walked out of Dr. A.C. Wathey Legislative Hall during the voting.
Marlin and Health Department Director Jorien Wuite contended that the advice formulated by an outside committee was merely an internal memo between the NA faction and the Directorate of Health Affairs, a memo Marlin said the DP members had seen when they were in power. Further, he said it was not customary that the Executive Council and Island Council share internal memos.
While Democratic Party Island Councilman Roy Marlin expressed the view that young local entrepreneurs should have flexibility in their home country, William Marlin suggested that any individual with an administrative degree could return home and open a lab, hiring the necessary staff to run the establishment. Instead, he said, the young practitioner should be able to contribute to the existing lab as the opportunity is there.
Roy Marlin said this was the second debate over permitting a licence for a young local practitioner, the previous case being over the license for gynaecologist Dr. Friday. He asked the NA faction if it was not time to revise the current policy to accommodate the young practitioners.
However, NA Island Councilman George Pantophlet pointed out that the policy had been updated in 2005 and was to have been revised in 2008, something that had never been done.
William Marlin suggested that while the DP could have revised the policy when Dr. Friday had first been denied his licence, but the party instead had been too cut up issuing building licences.
Roy Marlin said that in Dr. Holiday’s case the SMMC manager had had his own agenda, which had jeopardised Friday’s arrangement.
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