June 18, 2018
Hagåtña – Tonight’s oversight hearing, chaired by Senator Dennis Rodriguez, has put a cloud over the the hardworking Guam Memorial Hospital Authority (GMHA) doctors and medical professionals who have dedicated their professional lives to the hospital.
Testimony starting with Dr. Thomas Shieh rebutted and clarified many of the allegations of the previous panel.
Dr. Jonathan Sidell testified, “I don’t want to leave this building with the impression that it’s the flip of a coin whether you’re going to get a good doctor at GMH. The vast majority of doctors at GMH are good, so I resent that statement that there’s some good doctors at GMH, because it gives the impression that you might get lucky and find a good doctor. The fact is, you’re going to have to look real hard not to get a good doctor at GMH.”
Despite having chaired the Committee on Health for eight years now, and failing to fund GMHA by tens of millions of dollars during his tenure, Senator Rodriguez continues to shift blame to GMHA management, a political tactic used by politicians for decades now.
Senator Rodriguez did not vote to give GMHA a dedicated funding source earlier this year, and now champions a measure to strip the money from Guam’s only public hospital.
The root of GMHA’s challenges for over 40 years now is that it loses as much as $30M a year, and the legislature has failed to fund it.
