Senate President Tuaolo Manaia Fruean is the lead sponsor of a Senate resolution, which recommends to Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga not to go ahead with his plans to build a new 40-bed hospital.
The Senate measure references an executive summary of a report by a Medical Subcommittee of doctors and nurses from the LBJ Hospital and the Department of Health, which said that this decision was made without any input from them.
The subcommittee recommended that the $200 million allocated for the new hospital be used to improve the existing LBJ hospital facility at Fagaalu.
As we have reported, $300 million from the American Rescue Plan Act funding of $479 million was allocated for the hospital project. ASG decided to use $100 for the hiring of medical personnel while using $200 million be used to build a new hospital.
The resolution introduced today recommends to Governor Lemanu, and the American Samoa Government, to follow the recommendations of our local medical experts and to allocate the full $300 million of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) capital investment into the healthcare facilities of the LBJ Tropical Medical Center; and to support their efforts to follow the recommendations of the US Army Corps of Engineers to renovate and modernize the current facility at LBJ, instead of building a new hospital.
It is the Senate’s recommendation that Governor Lemanu and ASG follow the advice “of our own local medical professionals, our own local doctors and nurses who run our healthcare industry, day in and day out,” says the resolution. The Senate measure further states that the financial blessings we have received through the ARPA program “should not be squandered on an unsustainable, unrealistic, unviable “Mini-LBJ.” It is incumbent on all of us to be great stewards of the federal funding we have been blessed with. We do not need another hospital. We do need to upgrade and take care of the hospital we currently have.”
Co-sponsors of the resolution are: Soliai Tuipine, Malaepule Saite Moliga, Fano Shimasaki, Tuiagamoa Tavai, Utu Sila Poasa, Muāgututi’a Tauoa, Uti Petelo, Alo Paul Stevenson, Magalei Logovii and Tuiasina Laumoli.
The Senate Health Committee has scheduled a hearing for next Tuesday on the resolution.
