The Government of Guam, a USA island territory in Micronesia in the Western Pacific, has recently approved a bill for the transition of the Guam Memorial Hospital management to a public-private partnership model.

More concretely, the state's government has passed the Bill 277-33, which authorizes the Guam Economic Development Authority to seek information from the healthcare community on how to transition the hospital to a public-private partnership.

Additionally, the government has revealed that a request for information (RFI) process will be initiated in order to partially privatizing Guam Memorial public hospital. 

Guam Memorial Hospital is located in Tamuning, Guam and is the public civilian hospital serving the island of Guam. The hospital has 158 licensed acute care beds, plus 40 beds at its off-site, long-term care skilled nursing facility.

According to Pacific Islands Report, Guam's Governor Eddie said during the State of the Island Address:

"The hospital has the worst business model. Financing US$120 million in capital improvement would yield $30 million in immediate available cash for the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority. That $30 million would be on top of revenue-generating programs we are implementing. We can secure a low interest rate if we do this now, and we identified the repayment source."

Senator San Nicolas, one of the senators who opposed the bill, added:

"The fact that both of those things are on the table at the same time is incredibly alarming. Until I get a sense of a plan from either the governor or (Sen. Rodriguez), the chairman of health, I don’t think we should move forward until we have an understanding of where the hospital is going."