Özütok asks why ZVK didn’t involve Saba government

Mem­ber of the Second Cham­ber of the Dutch Parlia­ment Nevin Özütok of the green left party GroenLinks wants to know why the Caribbe­an Netherlands Health Insurance Office ZVK neglected to inform the Saba government about two important changes in policy regarding the transportation of pa­tients.

Irked by this news, communicated by the Public Entity Saba last week Wednesday, Özütok on Tuesday submit­ted a series of written questions to State Sec­retary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops.

The Member of Parlia­ment (MP) wanted to know why exactly, the Public Entity was not informed beforehand about the unilateral de­cisions by ZVK to have Saba patients also trans­ported to St. Maarten on SXM Airways three days per week, in addition to Winair, and to restrict the use of Accessible Ventures for on-land transportation of pa­tients on Saba.

“Do you agree with me that especially when rep­resenting the interest of small communities such as the ones in the Caribbean Netherlands, local governments need to be informed and involved with extra care about the decisions that are to be made?” In Özütok’s opinion, this didn’t seem to have happened, and that is why she decided to pose questions.

Özütok asked the state secretary to share his view on the handling of the ZVK towards the Public Entity Saba. “Do you agree with me that the handling by the ZVK can be qualified as uncareful since Saba was only informed after the implementation of the new policy? Is it correct that ZVK only informed the Saba people through a press release after the complaints of the Public Entity Saba?”

The MP wanted to know whether the state secretary agreed that the local government and the Saba people should have been better informed about the chang­es in the policy regarding patient transportation. Özütok asked whether Knops had been in­volved in the decision-making by ZVK and whether he had contact with the Acting National Government Represen­tative Jan Helmond on this matter. “Do you know if the National Government Represen­tative has been in touch with the Public Entity Saba on this issue?”

The MP suggested to the state secretary to adapt the communica­tion policy of the Carib­bean Netherlands Na­tional Government Ser­vice RCN so from now on it becomes standard practice to inform and involve local govern­ments in decision-mak­ing that affects residents of the three public enti­ties. She asked Knops whether he was willing to take measures.

The Daily Herald.