Low Lands:--- The owner of a dental clinic located in Lowlands has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman and with the Minister of VSA Emil Lee for unfair treatment.
According to the complaint filed both with the Minister of VSA Emil Lee who closed his office for the rest of his term in office informed the Minister that she needs explanations as to why the Minister chose not to issue a license to a dentist that has to operate at her clinic in Lowlands while he issued a license for the clinic and was even the one who suggested that she rented an office space in the building that was constructed by Lee’s construction company ALFA.
The director of the dental clinic in her complaint stated that the clinic is losing between $1,500 to $2,000.00 per day since the clinic lacks a specialist. According to information provided to SMN News, the director's husband used to work in Minister Lee’s cabinet and he was forced to resign when the two could not get along.
Further to that SMN News understands that Minister Lee told the owner (director) of the dental clinic that she should contact dentist Scott to see if the two could work together even though he issued a license for her to practice in Lowlands and he is the one who suggested that she rented the office space she is currently occupying. Besides that it is alleged that Minister Lee told the owner (director) of the clinic that the only reason things are being held up is because of the personal problems he had with her husband who was working for him in his cabinet when he first took office in November last year.
SMN News managed to obtain the email complaint sent to Minister Lee where the owner (director) of the clinic basically questions Minister Lee about his decision to refuse the granting a license to a specialist that intends to work at the clinic while he already granted a license to another dentist from the Netherlands who wanted to come to St. Maarten and practice but that dentist changed his mind due to the lengthy and bureaucratic procedures to obtain a practicing license and the fact the department handling the practicing licenses have been losing documents constantly. The owner (director) of the clinic went on to explain the painful procedure the dentist had to go through starting early February 2016. The owner (director) of the clinic further explained to the Minister that she could not understand why he is refusing to grant the practicing license for a dentist while one dentist left the island and that dentist has not been replaced. She also asked the Minister to explain to her why she needed to contact Dr. Scott whose clinic is in Philipsburg while her dental clinic is located at the other end of the island.
SMN News tried to contact Minister Lee several times by telephone for a comment on the email and complaint made by the owner of the clinic to him and to the Ombudsman but Minister Lee could not be reached.
Dentist blocked by Minister of VSA Emil Lee.
