Previous Story
Healthcare corp. backs privatization of hospital cafeteria
|
Posted on Jan 03 2012
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
Reporter
Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta told Saipan Tribune that the corporation is in favor of privatizing the hospital’s cafeteria, if serious proposals come in.
He said the health department had attempted to go that route years ago but opted not to pursue it after proposers submitted higher costs of operating the cafeteria compared to what the then Department of Public Health was spending.
“The cafeteria is one portion of the hospital that we’re looking at privatizing. However, it will only happen if perhaps a serious vendor comes in to operate it,” he said after last week’s board meeting.
Babauta confirmed receiving some feelers from proposers but he labeled them as just inquiries and nothing has been formally done about the matter yet.
“But once the party interested comes to us in a more serious manner, maybe in writing a letter, I will bring that to the board for discussion and input because that is a major decision to make,” he said.
The hospital cafeteria was closed to employees and non-patient customers in January last year due to lack of manpower in the kitchen section. It used to have six personnel. It now concentrates on cooking and preparing food only for hospital patients.
