HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero is back on Guam following a trip to the nation’s capital where she met with key representatives from the White House, Pentagon and Congress.
“My main focus and outcome was I wanted a much more documented commitment from them to help us with any kind of funding for infrastructure, the hospital and so forth,” Leon Guerrero said Monday.
Key officials from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs were among the federal stakeholders with whom the governor met, and they were supportive of co-locating a veterans clinic with a public hospital, according to Leon Guerrero.
Around mid-November, the VA announced that it had signed a lease for a Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) annex at the Medical Arts Center in Dededo, located adjacent to Guam Regional Medical City. C.W. Holding LLC owns the Medical Arts Center property.
This new CBOC annex is anticipated to include primary care services, prosthetics, lab and in-person mental health services. But Leon Guerrero told The Guam Daily Post Monday that VA officials said it would not be enough.
“This lease that they’re doing with C.W. Holdings next to GRMC, that’s not enough. They said it’s not enough. That is sort of … on an interim basis relief, the volume of work there at CBOC. But they are accepting and very much agreeing with co-locating a clinic with hospital inpatient services. This is not an unusual situation,” the governor said.
The Leon Guerrero administration has long been pursuing the construction of a medical complex. This would not only house a new public hospital but other health care facilities as well, such as a veterans center – a key selling point in the governor’s efforts to drum up support for the project.
Leon Guerrero is hoping to build the complex on Guam Ancestral Lands Commission property in the Barrigada/Mangilao area. But many in the medical community have pushed back against the project, preferring that only a new hospital be built at Ypao Point in Tamuning, which would be in closer proximity to existing clinics and medical personnel.
The governor said Adelup will be working with a point of contact at the VA, but on this recent trip to Washington, D.C., she wanted to understand how officials felt about co-locating a veterans clinic with hospital inpatient services.
“They so much believe that this is the right way and the right strategy to move forward. They also agreed with a regional approach to help veterans from the island sovereign nations. … There are so many veterans there. … The (VA) undersecretary of health reminded us that with the (Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act) that was passed, it gave them a lot of opportunities to have a relationship with the Department of Defense and the veterans in terms of leasing and working together with the military,” Leon Guerrero said.
In addition to the VA, the governor also met with DOD heads involved in health care, transportation and other infrastructure, including the secretaries of the Navy and Army.
Leon Guerrero said DOD sent a letter responding to her request to establish an economic adjustment committee, which would bring in federal partners with interest in the defense of Guam and infrastructure on the island.
“That’s the process that they have to go through to make recommendations to Congress. We’re working on trying to establish that economic adjustment committee. But we can’t really do it until we get the report of the recent environmental impact study in relation to the (Missile Defense Agency),” the governor added, referring to the pending environmental impact statement for the 360-degree Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense System.
The U.S. military is proposing to build this missile defense system on Guam in light of the growing military threat from China.
Leon Guerrero said “some good things are coming down the pipe” to show federal commitments to Guam in terms of how quality of life on the island can be improved.
“And they so much agree with the ‘One Guam’ approach, both military and civilian, that we should not talk about inside or outside the fence. Because they said what the civilians do impacts the military and what the military does impacts the civilians. So, we need to look at it as a whole ‘One Guam’ approach,” Leon Guerrero said.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero speaks to the media at a press conference at Adelup Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.
