$30 Million Hospital For Majuro?
A plan to build a $30 million hospital in Majuro has sparked concern by both the United States and Marshall Islands governments that the Ministry of Health will not be able to service and maintain the new medical facility if it is constructed.
Planned for years, the price tag for the facility started at $20 million, soared to over $40 and is now estimated at about $32 million. This does not include new medical equipment for the facility that will increase the cost.
United States government and non-health officials in the Marshall Islands government are questioning the need for such a costly facility when the majority of the health problems in the country are preventable.
A U.S. official said Friday, “nothing is sealed in concrete” and the plan is subject to review and changes.
Among key preventable health problems affecting health in the country: a high rate of tuberculosis that is drawing concern of U.S. states as many Marshall Islanders migrate to America, increasing gastrointestinal problems from water-borne illnesses, the highest teen pregnancy level in the Pacific — close to 20 percent of all births are to teenagers annually — and difficulty in eradicating leprosy, another concern of U.S. states that are faced with treating Marshall Islanders who have this virtually unseen disease in the U.S.
“The government, in particular the Ministry of Health, is studying the design concept with the recent modifications made,” said the government’s Chief Secretary Casten Nemra Friday. “This significant project is likely to take three-to-five years of implementation.”
- ADVERTISEMENT -
The current plan calls for a nearly 50 percent increase in the current 87-beds now at the hospital. But, said one U.S. official, “the Ministry reported that it has a 60 percent occupancy rate now. Why do they need 120 beds?”
The new facility is to complement a $9 million “annex” that the Japan government funded three years ago, which provides outpatient, diagnostic and public health services. But the Japan government balked at the Marshall Islands’ initial request for a $20 million hospital in the early 2000s over concerns that this western Pacific country would not be able to maintain a larger facility. The project was cut to $9 million and completed in January 2006.
The Interior Department “has documented its concerns regarding the overall project in a memo to Ministry of Health officials,” said Honolulu-based Interior Department official Stephen Savage, who oversees infrastructure development funding.
“Obviously, affordability, functionality, and maintainability are critical factors that (the two governments) must consider with regard to this project.”
EMPSCO Engineering Consultants, a Guam and Philippines-based company, recently won the project design and implementation contract over New Zealand firm Beca International, which is currently supervising U.S.-funded construction at the College of the Marshall Islands.
Under consideration by the Marshall Islands and U.S. governments is using U.S. infrastructure funding at a level of about $5 million annually for several years to accomplish the new facility.
“There is not an unlimited budget for this project,” said a U.S. official in Majuro. It needs to be both affordable while meeting the needs of health care services for Majuro, he added.
