CHCC to rotate doctors to Rota

Following the stabbing of the only physician on Rota, Dr. Francois Claasens, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. will be temporarily assigning a doctor to the island on a rotating basis each week.

CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña, who was on Rota yesterday, said that licensed nurse practitioner Norman Berthiume has taken over most of Claasens’ day-to-day duties at the Rota Health Center since Saturday.

For the moment, Muña said that CHCC will be providing mid-level providers or physicians to work at the Rota clinic every week until a permanent doctor is recruited to serve the island.

“In the meantime CHCC is also looking for more permanent physicians. Whoever the midlevel provider or physician at RHC is, they will have access to the ER doctors at the [Commonwealth Health Center] 24/7 and they will assist them,” she said.

Muna said even before last week’s incident, CHCC was already looking to hire a new doctor for Rota to pair with the 60-year-old Claasens.

“Before the incident, Dr. Claasens interviewed the physician we’re hiring. So we’re trying to hire earlier so we will have two physicians on Rota because Dr. Claasens was only by himself. We are also hopeful that Dr. Claasens will be back so that both physicians can work together,” she said.

The new physician, whose name Muna didn’t want to disclose, is a general practitioner, which is similar to Claasens’ line of work. He was expected to come in May, but due to the current circumstances, Muña has asked him to come sooner.

“He might actually come earlier than expected and we had a conversation with him to let him know that [Claasens’ stabbing] was an isolated incident and it was on Rota and we’re encouraging him to be on Rota. We also informed him that it is a safe place,” Muña said.

Claasens, who was stabbed on Saturday, remains in critical condition at the Guam Naval Hospital and physicians treating him there earlier said he only has a 20-percent survival rate after allegedly being brutally stabbed by William Abraham Kapono Mathewson.

Muna hope that Claasens will recover and a second doctor will soon be at hand to serve the Rota community.

“We will continue the recruitment and don’t know the situation yet but we are hopeful that Dr. Claasens recovers quickly. In addition, but not certain yet, if everything is clear and if the physician is willing, we may soon have a midlevel provider at RHC,” she said.