HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — While the debate continues over where and how to build a new public hospital on Guam, a couple of lawmakers have set their sights on exploring potential alternatives, either in the interim, while a new hospital is built, or as a permanent solution for the island’s health care needs.
To that extent, Sens. Jesse Lujan and Chris Duenas toured the Medical Arts Center in Dededo on Friday.
The facility sits adjacent to the Guam Regional Medical City and the property is owned by C.W. Holdings LLC, of which local attorney Cesar Cabot is a principal partner.
Cabot led the tour on Friday, but it was Lujan who reached out to him.
The senator indicated that he had been looking into the possibility of a public-private partnership to address public health needs on Guam. He told The Guam Daily Post Friday that he read about the Medical Arts Center and came down to see the facility while visiting a friend at GRMC.
“I said, ‘Man, this place is empty.’ So I placed a call to Cesar, and, with the argument going back (and forth) as to where the hospital’s going to be, I said, ‘Hey, is there a possibility that this can be an interim solution?’ So we met, and we spoke, and he gave us the details on what is happening,” Lujan said Friday.
“And it’s looking like it could be. It could be an interim, but it could (also) be an interim-permanent situation,” he added.
There is little debate over whether Guam needs a new public hospital. The issue currently is where to build it and what the scope will be. Presently, there are two bills at the Guam Legislature regarding the location for a new facility.
Bill 184-37, submitted by Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, identifies six lots in Barrigada belonging to the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission, totaling 61 acres, for the construction of a medical complex. This would also include a new hospital and other facilities, but the plan to build an entire complex has been met with significant pushback.
Many in the medical community are calling for the governor’s plans to be scaled down to just a new hospital facility, and to build it at Ypao Point in Tamuning, a smaller portion of property, but one said to be in quick reach of most existing medical facilities and professionals.
Lujan said Friday that it will take some years to construct a new hospital regardless of where it’s built, adding that it’s no secret that Guam Memorial Hospital, the current public facility, is on borrowed time.
Duenas said Friday that deteriorating conditions at GMH necessitate immediate relief.
“Right now, typically, they have even (telemetry) nurse stations that actually are overloaded. So, you have an (intensive care unit) that’s overloaded with patients that are not even really at ICU level. You got basically an emergency room that’s overflowing consistently. So, (we need) some sort of relief. We’re already at that capacity,” Duenas said.
“So, it makes sense for us to take a look at something like this to make sure that we can immediately make sure that there’s more bed capacity, and that it also gives them the flexibility to start doing those interim repairs at GMH,” he added.
The Medical Arts Center isn’t totally complete yet, although the infrastructure is already there, and Cabot said he had been told that a build-out can be done within six months to a year, depending on what’s planned. The area can also be expanded with additional facilities, as indicated by a multiphase medical project development plan, which is what Lujan was referring to regarding an “interim-permanent situation.”
Potential uses
Project co-owner Cesar Cabot, right, shows slides of his Medical Arts Center facility to Sens. Jesse Lujan, center, and Chris Duenas in Dededo on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
The Medical Arts Center still under construction in Dededo on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
