Suriname Gives State Land Plots to 90 Hospital Workers
HEALTH · SURINAME
Key Facts
- —The country Suriname, a former Dutch colony on the north coast of South America, has lost nurses and doctors abroad for years. Its main hospital says the effects are visible on its wards.
- —What happened On 2 October 2026, 90 staff of the Academic Hospital Paramaribo (AZP), nurses and support workers, received government decrees granting them plots of state land, GFC Nieuws and Waterkant reported.
- —Who is involved Ministers Stephen Tsang (public works and spatial planning), André Misiekaba (health) and Stanley Soeropawiro (land policy and forestry), plus AZP director Claudia Marica-Redan.
- —What it means for you For health workers it is a housing route, not a pay rise. Misiekaba said a better salary helps little if €300 (about US$340) goes on rent.
- —Still open Plot locations, sizes and legal form were not reported. Other AZP staff are still waiting for their decrees, the hospital director said on 2 October.
The Suriname brain drain in health care met an unusual answer on Friday: land. Ninety staff of the Academic Hospital Paramaribo (AZP), the country’s academic teaching hospital, received decrees granting them plots of state land.
The documents were handed over on 2 October in the hospital auditorium, after what GFC Nieuws and Waterkant called a long wait. The government presents the grants as part of its effort to keep nurses and other health workers in the country.
Land as a reason to stay
Public works minister Stephen Tsang spoke for President Jennifer Simons, who outlined 2027 plans in her annual address this week. He called the handover an important milestone.
“Where many have left, for whatever reason, you have stayed,” Tsang told the recipients, according to Waterkant. He urged them not to sell the state land but to build homes and financial independence on it.
Stanley Soeropawiro, minister of land policy and forestry, said a secure plot gives people a base to build on. He added that officials had worked hard in recent months to get the documents ready.
Why pay alone is not the answer
Health minister André Misiekaba framed the grants as one strand of a wider plan against the Suriname brain drain in care. He argued that wages cannot be judged apart from living costs.
“You can get a better salary, but if 300 euros [about US$338] goes on rent, you are not fully helped,” he said. That is about US$340 at Friday’s rate of €0.889 per US dollar.
The grants follow earlier steps. In February Misiekaba said the AZP had recruited 70 nurses from the Philippines, with a second group to follow, Suriname Herald reported.
He also said then that a new public pay scale, planned for mid-2026, would bring health workers a sizeable wage adjustment. In March he pledged at least SRD 60 million (about US$1.6 million at SRD 37.75 per dollar) to modernise the AZP.
A hospital under strain, with some signs of relief
AZP director Claudia Marica-Redan said the effects of the exodus are visible inside the hospital. “We know what that brain drain has done to us,” she told the ceremony.
She said staff need real prospects, not only appreciation, to build a future in Suriname. She also reminded the government that other AZP employees are still waiting for their own land decrees.
In March she put the daily load at 560 inpatients, more than 100 emergency patients and 2,000 outpatient visits. In May the hospital’s supervisory board briefed Misiekaba on a growing shortage of doctors, specialists and nurses.
There are tentative signs of stabilisation. In February Misiekaba said nurse departures had stopped rising; 20 students were due to start newborn intensive care training in March (health care in Suriname).
What Is Not Yet Known
Neither report gave the plots’ location, size, or whether they are lease rights or full ownership (land titles in Suriname). Recipients will also need money to build, and no housing finance scheme was announced.
It is unclear how many AZP staff are still waiting, or how many of the 90 are nurses rather than support workers. A first government release called all 90 nurses; a later version, followed by Waterkant, said the group included support staff.
Whether land eases the Suriname brain drain will only show in staffing figures over the coming years. No target for retained staff was announced on Friday.
Sources: GFC Nieuws, 2 October 2026; Waterkant, 3 October 2026; Government of Suriname, 2 October 2026; Suriname Herald, 12 February 2026, 10 March 2026 and 13 May 2026.
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