Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther L. Mu\u00f1a is hoping that United Airlines would reconsider its decision to reduce its Saipan-Guam daily flights for the sake of CNMI patients.<\/p>\n
In a letter to United Airlines CEO Oscar Mu\u00f1oz and president Scott Kirby, Mu\u00f1a detailed the challenges faced by hospital and medical referral patients in getting needed off-island medical attention.<\/p>\n
United plans to cut its number of flights from Guam to Saipan from more than four daily to once daily and, instead of a code-share agreement with United Express, will fly a jet that will ply both territories once a day. United earlier said that it would be ending its \u201crelationship with Cape Air service in Micronesia,\u201d including its five-time daily Guam-Saipan service, as well as the Rota-Guam and Rota-Saipan service, effective May 31, 2018.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said patients needing medical care are faced with the challenge of the CNMI\u2019s geographical location. \u201cOne of the most significant burdens is addressing emergency medical problems and identifying appropriate treatment in a geographically large, but sparsely populate region of the Pacific Ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CNMI is located 137 miles north of Guam, one of three U.S. territories in the Pacific, and 2,900 miles east of the Philippines. It is also 3,700 miles west of the State of Hawaii, with Honolulu being the nearest U.S. tertiary medical center for referral.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said United\u2019s announcement of having one daily flight from Saipan to Guam would create problems for CNMI patients. \u201c[It] significantly impedes the CNMI from getting our patients to emergency specialty care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that the one daily flight would also affect critically ill newborns and children that require special medical care as most of them doesn\u2019t have passports required to travel to Rady\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital in San Diego, California via Japan.<\/p>\n
Rady\u2019s is the only children\u2019s hospital in the West Coast and in the U.S. mainland that accepts the CNMI\u2019s Medicaid reimbursements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes more than two weeks to expedite a passport in the CNMI. Emergency treatment for a newborn requires a U.S. domestic flight path to care,\u201d said Mu\u00f1a, who added that the hospital\u2019s understaffed medical personnel are also affected since they would often travel with their young patients.<\/p>\n
Laboratory services\u2014inbound blood shipments and supplies, and outbound specimens\u2014would also be delayed according to Mu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not privy to the inner workings of United Airlines\u2019 business models or decision-making processes, but I urge you to consider the impact the decision to reduce flights from Saipan to Guam will have on the lives and safety of CNMI residents, especially those newborns and children who have no alternative,\u201d ended Mu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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