Accessible health care: Stimulus funds will expand health center
Annie Reyes of Merizo said the Southern Regional Community Health Center has been a lifesaver for her family for decades.
“They’re good people; they do a good job here,” she said yesterday in the waiting room of the Department of Public Health and Social Services center in Inarajan after a doctor’s visit.
Not only are the staff friendly and competent, it saves the family from a long — and expensive — drive to see a doctor, added her husband, Joe Reyes.
More families will be able to be seen at the health center daily after an expansion project breaks ground next week.
An infusion of $718,000 through President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, announced, will help fund the expansion, said Dr. Tony Stupski, medical director and acting administrator for Public Health’s community medical centers in Inarajan and Dededo.
The stimulus plan, signed into law in February, set aside $1.5 billion to fund construction, renovation and equipment purchases at community health centers around the nation.
On Guam, it will help along a project to build a larger lab and pharmacy, more exam rooms, isolation rooms and storage at the 40-year-old Inarajan center, Stupski said.
“The whole idea of it is to increase access,” he said. “If you’ve ever been to the regional medical centers, you know sometimes it’s hard to get in. We’re just trying to expand the number of appointments we have and to see more people.”
The Inarajan center also will expand its emergency services offerings, Stupski added.
“It’s going to be set up so it can be used as an emergency center, so during typhoons people can go there,” he said.
The center provides services such as immunizations, women’s care, minor surgeries and wound repair, tuberculosis testing and therapy, STD and cancer screening, communicable and chronic disease care and community outreach.
During the renovation, the center won’t close, but some services, such as assistance programs, have been moved to other Public Health facilities, Stupski said.
The economic downturn and the rising cost of health care mean many more people around the country are depending on community health centers, Obama said earlier this year.
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