Philipsburg:--- The Court of First Instance will decide next Tuesday if the Minister of Health and Labor Cornelius de Weever must grant the Mental Health Foundation a license to provide medical services to psychiatric mental patients.
The Mental Health Foundation dragged the Minister of Health before the administrative courts on Tuesday in order to obtain the permit. Defending the Mental Health Foundation was Attorney at Law Wim Van Sambeek from HBN Law while Attorney at Law Richard Gibson Jr. represented the Minister and his staff. Van Sambeek in his arguments said that MHF already has the building and other facilities in place but the only thing that is preventing them from operating is the lack of a license.
Attorney at Law Richard Gibson Jr. said that the MHF has been operating illegally by providing psychiatric care to prisoners and or detainees. He told the court that the Minister of Health has no problem granting MHF a license but proper procedures has to be followed, a thorough investigation of the facility would have to be conducted before the Minister would even consider granting a permit to the MHF. So far, the MHF has not submitted a proper request to the Ministry of Health. The court was told that such facilities need to have someone with a medical background as their director and that is not the case with the MHF.
