I Liheslaturan Guåhan recognizes the urgency of improving safety conditions and the quality of care provided to the people of Guam by the island’s only public hospital, the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority (GMHA). Although task force groups were established and community conversations have occurred during

COL 8/23/2023

12 Guam Code Ann. AUTONOMOUS AGENCIES
CH. 77 SPECIAL PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE GUAM ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

the past several years regarding the rehabilitation and modernization of GMHA facilities and services, a clear path forward that will guide the development of a new public hospital facility has yet to materialize.

It is, therefore, the position of I Liheslaturan Guåhan that a task force be established to coordinate efforts by the government of Guam to develop a new public hospital facility, including rehabilitation and/or replacement plans involving the current Guam Memorial Hospital Authority facility. I Liheslatura acknowledges the development of a new public hospital facility as a critical planning initiative of the government of Guam through the support of the Guam Economic Development Authority (GEDA). Included within the enabling statute of GEDA is 12 Guam Code Ann. § 50103(a), which recognizes that “”…there exists an acute shortage of adequate, modern and efficient hospital facilities in Guam and that unless measures are adopted to alleviate such conditions, the need for such facilities will become increasingly more urgent and serious. It is hereby declared that the safety, health and welfare of the people of Guam requires the provision of adequate, modern and efficient hospital facilities in the various parts of the Territory, and that it is the policy of the Territory and a purpose of this Division to provide the means necessary for the acquisition, construction and provision of hospital facilities to serve the general public and to make reasonably accessible to all the people of Guam modern and efficient hospital facilities.””