The Navy is looking for money to build a new hospital at Guantanamo Bay that would cost $50 million per bed.
In a request for construction funds delivered to the Senate Committee on Armed Service, the Navy requested $250 million for a five-bed hospital at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, the Miami Herald reports.
The committee, wants Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to review the proposed structure, as well as other construction projects at remote posts.
“The committee is concerned with the significant costs associated with maintaining accompanied tours at remote locations,” the committee said in a report. July 10.
“The committee is concerned with the significant costs associated with maintaining accompanied tours at remote locations.”
The hospital was one of the items of concern, as well as 52 new housing units in Kwajalein, part of the Marshall Islands that sit between Hawaii and Guam. The houses would cost $1.3 million each, the committee said, adding that “there are currently 18 military families on Kwajalein.”
The Senate requested Mattis deliver a “comprehensive review of the policies for determining which posts are accompanied, which are unaccompanied, and the extent to which the costs to the taxpayers and security risks to family members are considered.”
The Navy’s “proposed $250 million replacement hospital at Guantánamo Bay would cost $50 million per bed,” the Senate report said. The current hospital facility on Guantanamo has 12 beds, but was built in the 1950s and has been renovated countless times, the Miami Herald reports.
A smaller five-bed facility could better withstand earthquakes. “The facility has a significant risk of collapse in a major seismic event due to the lack of seismic design features,” the Defense Health Agency told Miami Herald in a statement.
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