Guam Memorial Hospital’s administrator gave an update on the possible site of the new public hospital as well as the date they plan to break ground.
Previously, PNC reported that the Guam Legislature held a public hearing to discuss Bill 121-36, which is an act to design, build, finance, lease, transfer and maintain the Government of Guam’s 21st Century Healthcare Center of Excellence.
GMH administrator Lillian Perez-Posadas, who is in support of the bill, said they have a responsibility to provide and to make the healthcare services for the people of Guam more accessible and more available.
“The hospital as it stands right now … it’s well established that it needs to be replaced,” she said during an interview with NewsTalk K57’s Pauly Suba.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had already assessed the hospital and according to the engineers, the hospital has lived past its lifespan and that it could possibly cost more to maintain the hospital than to build a new one.
Posadas says it would be very beneficial for the community to have a new one-stop medical facility.
“We’re going to be incorporating Public Health and Behavioral Health, not just the quality of care but the continuity of care so that patients don’t have to drive around the island to do follow-ups. Within that medical campus, we can coordinate to make sure that the patients or clients who are discharged from the hospital, within that same campus, can get them coordinated for follow-up patient continuity of care,” Perez-Posadas said.
At the moment, should the bill pass, Perez-Posadas said the desired area is looking to be around Eagles Field in Mangilao.
Perez-Posadas says that the military is supportive of the notion of building a new healthcare facility and is willing to relinquish some of the military’s land back to GovGuam.
There is currently a working timeline should Bill 121 become law. And although it might take some time before the task force can get an A&E design from engineers, they are looking to break ground sometime next year.
“Yes we are looking to break ground next year October 2022, and the first phase, as we had said, the priority was Public Health, the CDC Lab, but we’ve also put in a hospital into that first phase. In tandem, we’re going to be working to get that A&E design, the RFP out, we’re looking at October this year to get that RFP for an A&E design. Whatever company responds and provides proposals, we’re going to go through the screening of those proposals to see which offer best meets our needs. And then we go from there,” Perez-Posadas said.
##
