By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE National Hospital Week celebration on Guam rolled out yesterday with the administration and the Legislature expressing hope for the eventual accreditation of the Guam Memorial Hospital.
“GMH opened the new Progressive Care Unit and successfully integrated new state-of-the-art technologies for patient care services,” acting Gov. Michael W. Cruz said after signing a proclamation declaring May 6 to 12 National Hospital Week.
“GMH currently is working toward a Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations accreditation,” Cruz added.
GMH joins 6,000 U.S. hospitals in the national celebration themed “Care You Count On. People You Trust.”
“As a physician, I understand the importance of this industry and the passion our employees and volunteers have to serve our patients,” said Cruz, a surgeon.
Sen. Frank Blas, R-Barrigada, presented a resolution recognizing the “hard work and dedication” of GMH staff.
“There’s a number of programs that GMH has initiated over the years and they helped in improving the quality of healthcare on island,” said Blas, chairman of the health committee.
GMH is one of the critical agencies spared from the deep budget cuts under Bill 74, which was passed by the Legislature last week.
Under the bill, the subsidy that GMH would receive from the general fund would be reduced from $10 million to $7.8 million, a 22 percent cut.
Blas, however, explained that the 22 percent cut was not exactly taken away from the hospital budget. The 22 percent reduction would be replaced by money from the Compact-Impact fund.
“What we managed to do is move the source of subsidy from the general fund to the Compact Impact fund. So there was no loss on the side of the hospital,” Blas said.
He said the 22 percent realigned appropriation covers the ongoing capital improvement projects at GMH.
Blas said Bill 74 expands the governor’s transfer authority to allow him to move funds into critical services such as healthcare and law enforcement.