George P. Macris, M.D., the president of the Guam Medical Society, is here upon the invitation of CHC to help develop a hyperbaric medicine program to help diabetics and stroke patients.
Specializing in wound care for diabetics as well as divers, Macris is an undersea and hyperbaric medicine practitioner certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board Preventive Medicine.
His specialty will also help boost the CNMI’s tourism industry.
Many tourists, particularly divers, he said, don’t want to visit an island where they cannot be treated in times of an accident.
Macris said he has been licensed to practice on Saipan since 1987 and has been a frequent visitor of the island.
He can also practice emergency medicine since he is al board certified internist.
“I find Saipan to be more proactive in medicine than Guam,” he said. “It has more of a positive approach to medical care.”
Macris can also write grant proposals but what he really wants to do is help work with other CHC doctors to develop a local wound care and hyperbaric medicine program.
Because he’s from Guam, he said his contract with CHC “is temporary but regular.”
He finds Saipan “really pleasurable” and will be working here “indefinitely until further notice.”
He added, “It’s a 330-minute flight so I can go back and forth.”
Macris said he is very impressed by CHC.
Although it is smaller compared to Guam Memorial Hospital, he thinks CHC is “well-organized and very proactive.”
“And it’s seems like they are expecting more positive changes,” he said.
CHC doctors here are capable of treating diabetics, but Macris said the hospital needs to get a hyperbaric chamber.
Saipan’s close-knit community, he added, allows doctors to have an intimate knowledge of their patients.
CHC volunteers are raising funds for the purchase of a hyperbaric chamber, but Macris said he wants the hospital to have something “not only for the divers to help local tourism, but also for wound care and strokes.”
He said he will help the Department of Public Health get some grant money and provide more training to CHC doctors and nurses.
Macris is leaving tomorrow to attend an educational meeting on Guam.
He has invited some local doctors to join him.
“What we’re trying to do is let Saipan doctors know about educational programs on Guam,” he said.
