What the hell’s going on with KCHC, governor?

From what I have read the devil is in the details and he is raising a lot of hell with the Kagman Community Health Center closure and there is no end in sight. Even the Senate is literally asking “what the hell it going on?” and it’s all because one person had a great idea to make the clinic independent and executed it but the powers-that-be didn’t like them doing it on their own—a personality conflict.

Well, it’s done now so the best thing for all involved is to get on with the program and stop finding reasons to hold up progress. I am writing this because the employees at KCHC are literally begging for help so they can go back to work and there are literally thousands of patients who depend on the clinic for its services my wife and myself included.

It seems like they are working to find more problems and reasons to close the clinic than solutions to keep it open. It has even become a political football with the Senate rightfully meeting to see what can be done even though they are virtually powerless unless it’s about changing or making a law. The closure is obviously more than about the transfer of land, which is a simple internal CNMI issue unrelated to the grant and the CHCC resources are also an internal issue that should have been worked out internally. It has even become a “who-done it?” as the KCHC is now closed and the locks were even changed by who—was it to keep CHCC from taking resources or was it to keep KCHC employees out. In either case it is really a job for the governor not the Senate. The governor can even issue an “Emergency Directive for the Land Use” and even mediate the transfer of resources putting an end to the closure of the clinic “temporarily” until a permanent solution can be found. This was a simple “transfer of power and resources” that all the powers-that-be say was a great idea but strangely enough the clinic is now closed servicing no one anymore.

The sad and ugly thing is the employees and patients are the only ones suffering and are literally victims now. To make it worse, people don’t even know who to be upset at for the closure of the clinic but it seems to be driven by CHCC and not the clinic or the grant provider.

It was even brought out in the Senate that there was already a “personality conflicts” between KCHC and CHCC that has turned into a deadly virus for the center figuratively. Yes, employees and patients could really be victims because of a personality conflict(s) instead of real reasons that violate the grant or the law or pose real services challenges for the clinic. If ever there was a time for the governor to step in and resolve what has become an emergency political issue that is adversely affecting healthcare it is now with the KCHC closing. I was told the governor is off-island but there is nothing to keep him from communicating with the acting governor to fix the problem which is the main reason why we have the transfer of the governor’s power when he’s off-island for daily operations and real emergencies like this and not just for the acting governor to sign proclamations. The administration’s theme in the last election was all about “solutions” and this is a true emergency needing a real solution for the many patients and employees—we all need your help now governor!

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman