Hawaii senator, US Naval Hospital donate beds, items to CHC

Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. hospital administrator Jesse Tudela, CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muna, Public Health and Hospital Emergency Preparedness Program director Warren Villagomez, and a medical supply staff pose at the hospital’s storeroom in Lower Base after receiving donations of hospital beds and hospital equipment from Sen. Glenn Wakai of Hawaii and the U.S Naval Hospital in Guam.
(Jayson Camacho)

CHC received two hospital beds with mattresses, three newborn/infant warmers, one electric breast pump, and one infant radiant warmer from Wakai.

The U.S Naval Hospital donated two general hospital beds, one intensive care unit bed, four gurneys, three scales, one pediatric C-arm bedside X-ray, one birthing bed and an autoclave to sanitize medical equipment.

Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. CEO Esther Muna said the hospital is pleased with the generous donations from Wakai and the U.S Naval Hospital.

“We’re very grateful and fortunate that we’ve receive this donation and any support for our hospital is definitely very significant for us because basically we want people to understand that this is their hospital and this is not just ours. It belongs to the people,” Muna said.

She said the donations received from Wakai were made possible through KKMP’s Rosemond Santos who contacted Wakai. Wakai, who works with an organization called REPAC or Reach Out Pacific, included CHC among its beneficiaries this year.

“Santos was involved because she and Wakai worked together through contacting each other. He and Santos basically arranged for the shipment with REPAC. We we’re actually thinking that we were going to get two beds and mattresses because that’s what he emailed, but there were extra mattresses that were given,” Muna said.

Muna said that the two hospital beds from Wakai are both electronic beds. They received the donations from Wakai on Tuesday and just unloaded the donations yesterday.

“We have a lot of the old equipment that really needs to be decommissioned so these donations are really helpful,” she said.

“When they are donating to the organization, they are donating to the people. On behalf of the people of the CNMI we are very grateful to KKMP, U.S. Naval Hospital, REPAC and Wakai,” she added.

In related news, CHC has received the notice to proceed with its contract on receiving 30 beds, two ICU beds, two birthing beds, and 10 special mattresses.

According to Muna, the contract was certified by the Office of Procurement and Supply on Dec. 23 and they received the notice to proceed and get the hospital materials from its vendors yesterday.

Muna noted that CHC will continue to look for more funding on getting more hospital beds.