A senior physician on Guam says overcrowding conditions at the island's only civilian hospital are not improving.
Dr. Vince Akimoto, former president of the Guam Medical Society, says that the overcrowding is so bad that about a dozen critically ill patients were forced to wait in Guam Memorial Hospital emergency room hallways.
Dr Akimoto told the Pacific Daily News newspaper that when overworked nurses are treating too many patients in tight quarters, the likelihood of patients not receiving good care is increased.
Hospital Medical Director Dr. James Stadler said the patients were kept in the hallways so that emergency room nurses could be closer to them.
