HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Republican lawmakers at the Guam Legislature have introduced Resolution 215-37, urging Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero to declare an immediate state of emergency for Guam Memorial Hospital, and to direct resources to assist the ailing facility. The resolution was introduced Wednesday.
“Broken (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, massive flood damage, the threat of electrical fires, a consistent shortage of basic medical and sanitary supplies, along with the damning testimony of Guam Memorial Hospital health care workers confirming the hazardous, failing state of GMH facilities are the impetus for the introduction of a resolution to declare a state of emergency for Guam’s only civilian hospital,” the Republican legislative caucus said in a press release.
The release references a recent oversight hearing in which a nurse described unsafe working conditions at GMH, while adding that Resolution 215 makes note of the federal funding that Guam has received over recent years, most of which was related to COVID-19 pandemic relief. The resolution states that federal financial resources should have been used for GMH facility rehabilitations and operations since 2020.
“The past two years, most especially during the 2022 election cycle, saw this administration dole out pay raises and bring on countless political hires,” the Republican caucus said in the release.
“We were told by administration officials under oath that those millions in pay raises were something that we could afford. Now we know exactly who is paying for those raises: the sick, the dying, and the medical professionals who must find a way to care for them with dignity despite a clear lack of support and adequate resources,” Republicans added in the release.
The governor’s office responded to the resolution by Wednesday afternoon, stating that “everyone knows” GMH needs urgent help, but Resolution 215 “says a lot but does absolutely nothing.”
“Five of the six Republicans in today’s Legislature are veteran politicians who have served in that role years before – some going back to the ’90s and early 2000s, yet not once did they call for a state of emergency when the Calvo administration lost GMH accreditation or the Camacho administration couldn’t afford epidurals,” the governor’s office stated.
The administrations of former governors Felix Camacho and Eddie Calvo were Republican administrations that preceded Leon Guerrero’s current Democratic administration.
New GMH
The governor’s office stated that Guam needs a new GMH, and noted that the Republicans who introduced Resolution 215 also blocked the construction of a new hospital at Eagles Field in Mangilao.
The Eagles Field area of Mangilao is federal property that the governor’s administration eyed to be the home of not just a new hospital, but a larger medical complex. Efforts were underway to lease the property from the federal government, but that fell through in early May.
The selection of Eagles Field and the attempt to lease the property led to several controversies, resulting in a measure requiring legislative review of long-term leases with the federal government. This bill passed and was initially vetoed, but a later override attempt yielded unanimous support from lawmakers voting at the time, the majority of whom were Democrats.
Republicans stated in their release on Resolution 215 that they want the resolution to jump-start action and send a message to the governor’s administration “that we need to work together.”
“We don’t have five or 10 years to wait for the completion of a comprehensive medical campus,” the Republican caucus stated in its release.
The governor’s office, meanwhile, called upon Republicans at the Legislature to work with the governor’s administration and Democratic lawmakers to find a new home for the hospital and fund its construction.
“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,” the governor’s office stated.
Several lots in Barrigada and Mangilao, belonging to the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission and totaling about 100 acres, have been identified for the governor’s proposed medical complex.
In July, the governor reached out to GALC with a request to purchase the lots from the commission for the purpose of building the complex. The sale or lease of the properties will require legislative action.
The entrance to Guam Memorial Hospital is seen Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, in Tamuning.
