Stuck in a time warp: Two decades later, Guam politicians are still talking about the same thing

From the Publisher's Desk By Mar-Vic Cagurangam

 In his state of the island address on Feb. 21, 2005, then-Gov. Felix P. Camacho announced his administration’s plan to build a new regional medical center and to find funding for Guam Memorial Hospital.

“Cooperation is necessary as we move forward with plans to build a new, state-of-the-art regional medical center

for our island. We recognize that building a new hospital won't solve all our problems, but it is a step toward providing the quality of healthcare our residents need and can believe in right here at home,” he said.

Gov. Camacho and his team held a separate press conference to discuss the $100 million plan, detailed in documents compiled in a blue binder—copies of which were distributed to the media. It was a crowded and festive event. A new era was coming. I think there was music in the background.

I don’t remember what happened next. The Camacho hospital didn’t come to fruition. The plan seemed like a whim that just vanished into thin air. We never heard about it again.

In 2015, Guam Regional Medical City—a private venture conceptualized and jump-started by the late Pete Sgro—opened in Dededo. Other than issuing a qualifying certificate to Medical City, the government of Guam had no involvement in the development and construction of GRMC.

While a private medical facility now co-exists with the government hospital, Gov. Camacho’s 2005 state of the island address tells us that GMH remains where it was two decades ago—plagued by the same ailments treated with Band-Aid solutions.

Excerpts read:

“We have already made great strides to improve services at our hospital, cutting the shortage of registered nurses by half in just two years. We continue to work with the University of Guam, the Guam Community College and the Guam Memorial Hospital, who are training students to become licensed practical nurses to help ease the shortage of locally trained and hired nurses. Last year, we hired an OB/GYN to work exclusively at the hospital, but it is only a start. This year, we will hire hospital-based physicians for surgery, pediatrics and adult medicine.

“When we came into office, we provided $1.5 million in funding to the hospital, in addition to their budgeted amount. That was not enough! Last fiscal year, 

we gave $5.l million to GMH for medicine and supplies. That was still not

enough. In the first four months of this fiscal year, I dedicated $2.2 million

in compact impact funds. That will not be enough!

“We must identify a consistent source of funding for our hospital, that is why I have called for a roundtable discussion with the legislature, hospital administration, doctors and other medical professionals to discuss not only the problems we all know about, but the solutions our people need. We've all taken an oath to care for our people. It's time to put our differences aside, roll up our 

sleeves and get the job done.”

Fast forward to 2025: Re-read the text above. Speech writers might as well keep every governor’s state of the island address as a template.  

Millennials and Gen Zs have been born, but we are still in 2005.

Guam’s health care challenges are passed on from one administration to the next, without being structurally addressed. While privatization or private-public partnership has been floated, no administration has ever taken a serious look at this option, in denial of the fact that the government of Guam cannot run a hospital efficiently.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, a registered nurse, overhyped her credentials. With only one year remaining in her second term, her campaign promise to reinvigorate Guam’s health care system is just that—a campaign promise.

Her much-ballyhooed hospital project runs into one self-created obstacle after another. Recently, the Superior Court doused her inexplicable obsession with Mangilao. Unless she softens her obstinacy and agrees to work with the medical community, the attorney general and the senators, her hospital project will end up in Guam’s archive of failed plans and whims that vanished into thin air.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, the Marshall Islands broke ground for the reconstruction of the parliament building, known as Nitijela, two months after a devastating fire gutted it.

Vowing to rebuild the Nitijela quickly, President Hilda Heine engaged parliament after receiving $13 million from the U.S. and $30 million from Taiwan. The drama-free project is ongoing.

Perhaps Guam’s governor could use a friend in Majuro for political advice.

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