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CHC hemodialysis center to open in October
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Posted on Apr 10 2006
The Commonwealth Health Center will finally inaugurate its hemodialysis center in October following years of delay caused by funding shortage and a host of other problems.
Department of Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez said his office is currently acquiring equipment for the center and that he expects to open the facility sometime in October.
“It’s going very well. There’s a lot of involvement in this project,” he said, adding that there would be medical staff that would be assigned to the new building.
It was reported earlier this year that the Fitial administration was pushing for the reprogramming of funds for the completion of the hemodialysis center project.
Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez had said that, without the funds, there was no hope of opening the building as scheduled.
He said the project continued to be under-funded and that the administration would ask the Legislature to reprogram funds.
The construction of the new hospital wing is now more than 70-percent complete.
The Babauta administration and the previous Legislature had already reprogrammed $5.8 million for the project in 2004.
The project was originally budgeted at $11 million but its contract, which was awarded to AIC Marianas, cost only over $5 million. This prompted lawmakers to re-appropriate the “excess” funds to other projects.
Public health officials, however, later realized that it would need additional funding for a water system and parking. The department also cited mistakes in the design, prompting officials to redesign it, costing more money.
Due to these lapses and the frequent request for change orders, investigations were initiated on the project.
The administration also asked the Department of the Interior to thoroughly review the project. The center, which began construction during the Babauta administration, is expected to solve overcrowding at the current dialysis center and reduce the number of patients that need to be sent off-island.
From 44 patients in 1996, the Commonwealth Health Center reportedly attends to nearly 100 dialysis patients now.
CHC has only 14 dialysis stations. The new facility can accommodate up to 24 stations.
