Our elderly do not go to the doctor for fun. According to Ivo Valdes, no one goes to the doctor for pleasure people go because they need help and want help at the moment they need it, not five months later.
Ivo Valdes of OPPA regretfully states that many people have died without receiving the medical assistance they needed because they had to wait months to get an appointment. Knowing this situation, no one is rushing to fix the problems in Aruba’s medical system.
However, OPPA is not staying silent and has already raised this issue in several meetings, but the response they receive is that the number of elderly people is high and therefore it is “normal” that more of them die. These answers are unacceptable, because it is our elderly who worked to build the Aruba we have today and Aruba is not an underdeveloped country.
The Ministry of Public Health must use data to improve its policies. It is true that we have AZV, but AZV only provides cure and not care.
Cure refers to the process of healing an illness, while care refers to the attention, support, and assistance a person receives during treatment or a health situation, even if there is no complete cure.
However, for many years, the necessary care for our elderly has been requested, and it is still not being adequately provided. If our elderly truly received the care they need, the number of senior citizens dying would decrease. Is this what our system wants? Or, because our elderly population is large, is there an intention to “eliminate” them? If that is the mindset, according to Ivo Valdes, what kind of country are we creating?
According to Valdes, it is also noticeable that the same people who oppose or criticize certain issues today forget that one day they too will grow old. Or that their own parents will grow old. Or do they prefer to die at a young age? According to Valdes, the situation of our elderly in Aruba is troubling. Yet nothing is changing in Aruba governments come and go, but until now, no measures have been taken for our elderly.