Torres willing to commit ARPA funds for new hospital or expansion

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said Friday he is willing to commit part of the American Rescue Plan Act funding to build a new hospital or expand the main hospital on Saipan.

In response to inquiries during a radio press briefing about the plan to build a new hospital, Torres said that he and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther L. Muña have been looking at some figures to commit from ARPA. He said the amount depends on the proposal and they can provide specific figures once they move forward with the plan.

As to the location, the governor said they looked at different areas and it always come back to the fact that there is already a main hospital and that it would be easier and better to just expand it.

Torres

Torres said the most ideal is to build the expansion closer to the main hospital building.

He said they don’t want to wait three years to build a new hospital, but if that’s how long it would take for the federal government to get a comprehensive study on the subject, then the CNMI should take that advantage and utilize that proposal.

In the meantime, Muña has her own priorities and Torres said maybe they can address one or two of those priorities. He noted that the top priority is to build a portion, if not extend, at least the Intensive Care Unit rooms and build an MRI and CT scan unit. At present there are only four beds at ICU, so they are hoping to increase that, he added.

“Those are the things that we want to increase and have the capacity for the CNMI and other special treatments that CEO Muña and our doctors recommend,” Torres said.

He said they should act on those specific concerns and address those as they wait for the overall or comprehensive study of the federal government.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency Region 9 Office will visit at the end of this month to do an assessment with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about building a new hospital.

Torres said this topic of building a new hospital is not new as he and Muña have been talking about it for years.

He said they have worked on pushing forward on getting MRI machine and other specific medical care that they need to address for the current health issues in the CNMI.

He said they are looking at having a separate building for the MRI and other scanning device that needs to be upgraded at the hospital.

Torres said when the pandemic came in, they looked at what the hospital immediately needs so they built a parking lot north of the hospital.

“To some that’s not a big deal, but it is to everybody that’s going to the hospital,” he said.

Muña disclosed that a meeting at the end of this week is going to be a brainstorming discussion with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region IX. The CEO said present at the meeting will be governor’s authorized representative to FEMA Patrick Guerrero, COVID-19 Task Force chair Warren Villagomez, doctors and nurses, and representatives of the administration.