WILLEMSTAD — Public medical insurer SVB will organize the ‘Caribbean Conference on National Health Financing Initiatives’ together with the Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature. This conference will take place from October 30^th up to and including November 1^st at the Marriott Hotel. Participants are expected from all corners of the Caribbean area and from the Netherlands, England and the United States.

The purpose of the conference is to exchange information, gain more understanding and acceptation and exchange experiences on financial policy in the health service. Various preventative programs will also be scrutinized, for example, the tested health advancement strategies that are to control the epidemic of expensive chronic diseases. According to Philip Martis from the SVB, the basic assumption is ‘make or keep health service affordable’.

This is the seventh edition of the annual conference. In total, more than 60 international guests, employed in the health sector, insurance and government, will visit the island. Participating countries include Anguila, Aruba, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Montserrat, Surinam and Turks & Caicos Islands. Stanley Lalta from the Center for Health Economics of The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, and Ashley Duits from the Blood Bank Curaçao are among the speakers.

More information is available on the website www.cchfi-curacao2012.com.