Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez did not disclose the details of the salary package nor the funding source of this cash-strapped government, but he said it will be out in 30 days.
He said one of the reasons doctors and other medical staff leave CHC is because they get better opportunities on Guam or the mainland U.S.
“We need to come up with a new salary structure that will keep our medical doctors and staff duly compensated to stay here, and an attractive salary package that will allow us to hire qualified doctors to stay,” Villagomez said.
To address the shortage of doctors, Villagomez said they are working with the licensure board to be able to recruit foreign doctors.
He said CHC has 31 full-time doctors but need 43 for the hospital to be fully operational, Villagomez.
He said they have received inquiries from five doctors who showed interest in working at CHC.
He said CHC does not lack nurses.
“We have 235 nurses, including the 12 nurses we have hired in the last six months,” he added.
They have “lots of applicants” for nurses but only two full-time positions are available, he said.
Villagomez once again stressed the importance of working with the private clinics to ease the work load at CHC.
“If we work with the private doctors, we won’t need to hire so many doctors from off-island. CHC can be fully operational with only 25 to 30 doctors,” he said.
