Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Gov. Lemanu P. S. Mauga’s nomination of Dr. Patrick P. Pedro as a member of the LBJ Medical Center board of directors was rejected by the Senate yesterday after the nominee failed to garner enough “yes” votes for approval.

Six senators voted “yes” while seven of them voted “no” to approve the nominee. Dr. Pedro needed at least 10 yes votes for confirmation. And the nomination is officially rejected as only the Senate is allowed under the law to confirm nominations to the LBJ board.

The governor has the option to name a new nominee, but the current session officially closes this Friday. He can name a different nominee or re-nominate Dr. Pedro when the Second Regular Session begins in July.

Dr. Pedro was to replace board member Malouamaua Dr. P. Tuiolosega, whose term expired March 2, 2023.

In his nomination letter, the governor explained that Dr. Pedro graduated from the American Samoa Community College in 1988, and that he completed his first three years of primary medical training through the Pacific Basin Medical Officer Training Program before attending Fiji School of Medicine where he graduated with honors.

Dr. Pedro went on to complete a University of Hawaii Surgical Residency Program in Hawaii in 2008. Dr.Pedro served as a Junior General Surgeon for LBJ Tropical Medical Center early in his career.  Since 2011, he has worked in Acute Care Surgery at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu.

The Senate vote during yesterday’s session followed a Senate Health/ Hospital Committee confirmation hearing held earlier in the day, where Dr. Pedro says that he has already determined that “I’ll be coming back” to the territory.

Senators who spoke during the hearing shared their concerns with the ongoing problems at LBJ and Sen. Magalei Logovi’i pointed to information he received that RNs at LBJ were leaving because they are underpaid — despite the fact that they are RNs and are needed.

Magalei questioned why the LBJ board would not provide solid salaries for nurses, while it has hired a person for a position that is not budgeted.

(Magalei didn’t specify the position but Samoa News understands he was referring to the new Executive Director of the LBJ board — Dr. Jean Anderson.)

Responding to questions from other committee members, Dr. Pedro said that prior to COVID, he usually traveled here to assist the hospital, through conferences, and lectures. He said the territory needs updated facilities and updated services, “so that way we don’t have to refer people to Hawaii.”

With his many years at a doctor with Queens Medical Center, Sen. Satele Lili’o asked why the nominee didn’t work on getting a patient referral agreement done between Queens and LBJ.

Dr. Pedro recalled a meeting a few years ago about it and the biggest issue is that there’s no referral agreement with Queens, and LBJ has unpaid bills — a huge LBJ debt that remains unpaid. And this made is difficult for Queens to accept referrals from LBJ.

However, he said Queens is taking referrals for patients with medical insurance.