While trash costs more, Calvo says “Life is priceless”
 
For immediate release, July 19, 2016
Call Troy Torres at 977-0178 for more info.
 
(Hagatna, Guam) The Governor’s Office and the Hospital community challenge the logic the Pacific Daily News uses to oppose the hospital improvement plan.
 
“As senators prepare for session tomorrow, I want the public to see the slant that some have used to block the hospital’s expansion initiatives,” Governor Calvo said. “I want senators to know that financing the outpatient facilities, technology, and equipment plan is the responsible thing to do. It is both fiscally responsible and morally incumbent. We have a duty to the lives of the patients. Patients deserve to live. Life is priceless.”
 
The PDN has been the first and top defender of the federal receivership of the Guam Solid Waste Authority and the money squandered on trash services: $160,000,000 bond that 18,000 residential ratepayers and taxpayers pay for, via GBB.
 
PDN3 (1)
 
It was even discovered that GBB was wining and dining on island and in Hawaii with ratepayer funds. Money was spent time and again on steak and lobster dinners in fancy restaurants, first-class airline seats, and the finest hotels. The PDN continued to defend GBB and trash management.
 
YET, when the hospital makes a public plea for the outpatient facilities and modernization program that will help patients suffering from disease including cancer and heart problems, the PDN demands fiscal responsibility from the hospital.
 
So, it is important that you see these figures for yourselves, so that you understand it isn’t GMH that’s wasting your tax dollars in comparison to the cost of trash.
 
Consider this:
 
The $160M trash bond will cost the average ratepayer:
$9,000
 
That’s almost 400% more than the average cost/patient to run GMH last year:
$2,230
 
A breakdown of that cost per patient per $100?
–       $51.60 pays and supports nurses and doctors
–       $26 pays for the medicine, labs, x-rays and other ancillary services
–       $12.50 is spent to keep the hospital clean and feed its patients
–       $8.40 to collect and pay the bills
–       $3.50 to manage operations
 
So, there, saving lives apparently costs far less than redistributing trash on this island to Inarajan. If that’s what’s important to the PDN, then we hope they’re satisfied with this evidence. But for us, the hospital community, and the 46,000 patients it cares for annually, we understand that #lifeispriceless.
 

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