The $1.3 million project is now 80 percent complete, he added.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial earlier announced that the center would open last March 10, 2009 or after 270 days of construction by Pacific Cooperation Ltd.
The hemodialysis center is in the health center’s cafeteria.
Calvo said the collateral equipment, the back-up generator, the independent water supply and reverse osmosis systems are yet to be installed.
He said the facility, once completed, can accommodate Rota patients.
The center will have five hemodialysis stations, with one unit serving as an isolation care station complete with a mechanical lifter capable of transporting bed-ridden patients to the upper level on a stretcher or wheel chair, Calvo said.
In the meantime, he added, they are sending their dialysis patients to the Commonwealth Health Center on Saipan.
It was the lack of funds that initially delayed the Rota project, which was conceptualized in 2005.
The project took off after the Commonwealth Development Authority provided $1.5 million from the CNMI’s capital improvement bond last year, Calvo said.
Despite the delay, the former Senate president added, there has been a huge improvement at the Rota Health Center since he assumed his post in 2006.
