Lawmakers hear testimony on bill to transfer Public Health facility to Guam Community College

Can there be a “win-win” for both the Department of Public Health and the Guam Community College? 

As KUAM reported, there are two competing bills on what’s to do with the former Public Health Mangilao facility which was abandoned after an electrical fire in 2019. 

Senator Speaker Therese Terlaje’s Bill 222 seeks to reopen the building for Public Health to use again.  

Senator Tina Muna Barnes’ Bill 221 that seeks to transfer the property to GCC for the construction of a nursing annex getting support from agency heads during a public hearing Wednesday. 

GCC President Dr. Mary Okada said, “As these discussions have evolved, the possibility of offering a Department of Public Health clinic and laboratory and a GCC nursing and allied health annex in the same complex is a model that GCC is interested in pursuing and exploring.” 

Public Health acting Director Peter Camacho is also in support. 

“Without sufficient funding, DPHSS would not be able, on its own, to renovate or bring the facility up to current code. And as Director Therese Arriola indicated in her confirmation hearing, she would not allow her staff to enter a facility that was not safe,” said Camacho. 

But it isn’t quite the compromise it sounds like for Public Health employee Annette Aguon who speaks out against the measure in its current form. 

“The bill as it is currently written appears to support only one target group of GCC and its students. What about DPHSS staff and our clients that we service, the entire island,” said Aguon. 

She said while it expands GCC’s footprint, it does not return the facility for a central Public Health clinic. 

“Now our clinic programs and services are scattered across the island. As an employee, it is disheartening to hear our clients’ anger and frustration to now have to drive to multiple buildings and villages for these services,” Aguon added. 

Meantime, local Physician Dr. Thomas Shieh suggests the components of the competing measures to be combined. 

“You have to make sure that access to care is the number one priority, not just teaching. Teaching, you can teach but without patients, you’re not going to be able to teach,” said Shieh.