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Due to the limited availability of airline seats and hotel rooms, ZVK will guarantee only urgent medical referrals around the new year
The BES Health Insurance Office for Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius (ZVK) would like to inform all insured persons and care providers on Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba that, throughout December and January, only medical referrals of an urgent nature will be guaranteed by the Insurance Office.
The reason for this is the limited availability of airline seats and hotel rooms at the destinations abroad where insured persons are sent for specialist care and the limited space for taking on patients at the care providers themselves.
Per year the ZVK deals with an average of 8,000 referrals for specialist care abroad. There are approximately 900 referrals to Aruba, 700 to Colombia, 1,800 to Curacao, 30 to Guadeloupe, 70 to the Netherlands and 3,000 to St. Maarten.
Each year the ZVK is confronted with situations where insured persons experience difficulty with their journey to and their return trip from one of the above-mentioned destinations because of the limited availability of airline seats and/or hotel rooms. To avoid unnecessary inconvenience for insured persons, please be informed that the ZVK will only deal with medical referrals of an urgent nature throughout December and January.
In connection with this, the ZVK has requested all first and second-line care providers (general practitioners and specialists) to take the above into account. The emergency transport system for urgent specialist treatment abroad by means of the Learjet and Medevac helicopters will, as always, be in a continuous state of alert.
Press release ZVK