Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Department of Health will take over from the LBJ hospital moving forward with the implementation the new 40-bed hospital, which came as a surprise to the Director of Health.

The move was confirmed by Vice Chair of the LBJ Board, Dr Jean Anderson during a meeting between LBJ officials, Department of Health officials and members of the Architectural firm Hawaii Limited that arrived on Monday to confer on the design of the new medical center. Samoa News was present at the meeting that took place on Wednesday, March 1.

 “This is the first we’ve had a discussion with the medical staff and the consultants on island working on the new hospital.

 “Our doctors were able to share some of there recommendations about the hospital and some of the things we discussed were possibly how this hospital can complement what LBJ does and what DoH does and maybe not end up being something that duplicates services,” said Dr Anderson.

 “We had some of our medical staff express concerns — do we even need a new hospital and why can't we use those resources towards upgrading LBJ and maybe some DoH clinics?”

Dr Anderson during the meeting commended the architectures for wanting to hear feedback from the medical professions regarding this new medical facility set to be built at the industrial park.

 “We just want this to really be an opportunity for us to dialogue on. What’s exciting about it is that we didn't really plan that we were going to be here with our partners from DoH but we're grateful that you're here because maybe now this is an opportunity that we can collectively talk about health care on our island.

 “What are we doing that's really good; what would we like to do more of; what we know we're not doing at all, that we just don't have the capacity to do between LBJ and DoH.

 “The other important reason we're here today and that is we have been officially informed that the new hospital project will now be under the lead of DoH and not LBJ,” said Dr Anderson.

Director of Health, Motusa Tuileama Nua said that he and his department had no idea the new hospital would be overseen by the DoH.

 “So don’t ask me how I got selected to be the Chairman on the steering committee, this is another load on the top of what we do in public health, but we’re looking forward to working together with the medical staff.”

Motusa acknowledged the LBJ officials noting that they need each other in order to see through this project.

 “The DoH does not have the skills, nor the knowledge, nor the expertise to move forward this kind of massive project. And with LBJ being in this field for quite a long long time, this is where the supplemental experts are and the team from Hawaii will need their input. So by the end of the day we should be able to meet the needs of our territory.

 “We will all need to come shoulder to shoulder and push this project and there is a limited timeframe for this project. And it should be completed by 2023 and if [we are] not on the train by then, we will lose out,” said Motusa.

As reported earlier by Samoa News, $50 million of the $300 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act is allocated for recruitment, retention, and retraining of staff at LBJ and the proposed new 40-bed facility in Tafuna.

There was no indication at the meeting who made the decision to move this project to the leadership of Dr Motusa and the Department of Health.