by Jolene Toves

Guam - While much was said about the current state of the hospital, GMH administrator Joseph Verga had strong words of his own to share.

Responding to concerns from the Guam Legislature and problems with the hospital's finances released in an audit yesterday, Verga says the findings are not surprising and that the results only validate a longstanding issue, which he says has nothing to do with management. "You can't keep blaming administration after administration while not accepting responsibility for the lack of funding at GMH over the years and the comments from the legislature are very disheartening because the comments again are another attempt to distance themselves from their responsibility for the lack of funding for GMH," he explained.

According to Verga progress is being made and if a side comparison of the FY12 audit and the FY13 audit was made there would be several areas which have improved. Despite the over $200 million in patient receivables Verga adds that to illustrate how the lack of funding compounds the issues the OPA notes how 51% comes grom the "Three M's" - Medicare, Medicaid and MIP - which only reimburses GMH a fraction of the costs of care.

He continued, "Without adequate revenue and adequate help to accomplish our mandate of providing care to all those who needs services and all those who do not get any services in the community and use GMH as only resort we need to be adequately funded we have been saying this for a very, very long time."

Making due with the resources they have not only applies to the hospital's finances but in the interim measures they take to address issues throughout the hospital.

For example, Verga responds to concerns from the Legislature about the air conditioning in the emergency room. Verga said it was a normal interim measure. "The so-called contraption that the senator refers to is a temporary interim measure portable air conditioner to continue cooling the people in the ER while the air conditioning problems get worked on," he said.

Verga defended there is no mold and that the exhaust is being funneled outside. Bottomline he said senators are placing blame on him when they should really look in the mirror. "Its another attempt to distance themselves from their own responsibility for the lack of funding of GMH and to call for my termination termination of the management pointing fingers at administration after administration while refusing to accept responsibility themselves," he said. "So this is nothing but sensationalizing looking to make headlines during political season and that's just unfortunate."