HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Amidst the bickering between the governor and the Republican caucus of the Legislature, there is one thing they are both in agreement on: the Guam Memorial Hospital needs help now. But, what may be holding elected leaders from coming together on the matter is a difference in mindset.
Since the hospital’s oversight hearing laid out the stark reality of the deplorable condition of the hospital’s infrastructure and its impact to patient care, there has been a call for a state of emergency by Republican senators and an unwelcoming retort by the governor who in turn called out veteran Republican senators for having done nothing to help the hospital in decades past. An assertion that Republican Sen. Frank Blas Jr. disagreed with noting that on Friday morning he requested a hearing on Resolution 215 and Bill 164-37.
“That bill along with other times we’ve attempted to address the concerns,” Sen. Blas said. “For her to say we have provided nothing, yes we have.”
While the governor agreed that GMH needs “urgent help now,” Blas said she has done “absolutely nothing” to bring forth a plan of action to address the immediate needs of the hospital and instead has played the “blame game.”
“She is trying to lay blame on the Legislature for the dilapidated, continuous decay of our health care system now. What does something that won’t be built, won’t be ready for service and occupancy … five years from now … going to do today?” Sen. Blas said. “It’s like I am going to neglect the leaky pipes in the kitchen and our broken stove in the kitchen because we are going to build another house and the house will be ready in two years. So you’re not going to repair your stove, not going to make the repairs to the plumbing?”
The governor’s Communications Director Krystal Paco-San Agustin told the Post that efforts have been made to address the needs of the hospital.
“GMH management and our administration have taken just some of the following steps to keep GMH facilities operating: 25 of 64 air handling units have been replaced, 88 new split units and 33 portable AC units have been installed of varying sizes (predominantly in clinical areas), HVAC upgrades to the ED, ICU, OR, and OB are in the construction phase, rooftop repair, coating or upgrading has been completed for A, B, D & E wings, and regular maintenance is being done to our electrical control panel in partnership with GPA,” Paco-San Agustin said.
The governor has championed for the construction of a new hospital on Eagles Field since her first term as governor, but those plans fell through. In her response to the Republican caucus she made sure to remind the community how that transpired.
“We need a new GMH. And the Republican senators who have introduced this resolution also blocked the construction of a new hospital at the Eagles Field on property that the Department of Defense was going to lease to GovGuam at no cost. Now, DOD is going to use that property for something else and there is still no site for the construction of a new hospital,” the governor said in the statement.
“GMH is in a hole. And Republican senators had years to save it. They did nothing—and now all they have to offer is a complaint saying—dig faster,” Paco-San Agustin said.
While the need for construction of a new hospital is undeniable, Sen. Blas believes that the continued decay of the current hospital has to do with mindset of the governor.
“I think her mindset is different from the community’s needs. The mindset is different from the people she is responsible for, the people she has to care for, that’s where the difference is. Nobody is denying that we would like to be able to build a newer, bigger and better hospital. But right now the fact of the matter is that the hospital we rely on today needs the proper fixing,” Blas said.
The governor pointed out that “the United States Army Corps of Engineers has already evaluated the current hospital and determined that it would be more cost-effective to build a new one than to repair the existing one.”
That same 2020 report the governor referred to also stated that even if the decision was made to build a new hospital, “immediate repairs to the existing roof, HVAC, and critical life safety items, with an estimated cost of $21 million, must be undertaken” at the current hospital “to address critical infrastructure needs to re-obtain accreditation and continue operation during construction.”
According to Blas, who reviewed a report on expenditures for the American Rescue Plan funds Friday morning, there’s $215 million “sitting there.”
“You’re asking the legislature who has two pennies to squeeze together to get another penny to be able to assist the hospital while you have $215 million of which about $153 million is for the construction of a new hospital, use it for God’s sake. You don’t need our permission, as a matter of fact she told us she doesn’t need our permission to use the money, so why isn’t the money being used,” Blas said.
Blas noted that the suggestion to call for a state of emergency was so that resources could be utilized to make the necessary fixes to the hospital, an inherent power that he said only the executive branch has.
Meanwhile the governor contended that Resolution 215 “says a lot but does absolutely nothing,” and Blas to some extent agreed.
“I find it very interesting she says it does absolutely nothing, she’s absolutely right. If you chose to continue to neglect the hospital, if you choose to continue to ignore the needs of the people for a safe, healthy environment, if you choose to ignore that patients (who) are being bathed with paper towels and toilet tissue as opposed to wipes, if you choose to ignore that medications are not available to patients, if you choose to ignore that hospital staff (are) encouraged to break laws to provide health care to the people then yeah, it does absolutely nothing,” Blas said.
The Guam Memorial Hospital in Tamuning on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023.
