Gallup Indian Medical Center Among IHS Facilities Awaiting Long-Overdue Replacement

The Gallup Indian Medical Center handles 250,000 outpatient encounters and 5,800 inpatient admissions each year from a campus of modular buildings and piecemeal renovations the federal government first flagged for replacement in 1993. Thirty-three years later, the hospital still operates from that same fragmented footprint, and national scrutiny of the Indian Health Service's construction backlog is putting renewed pressure on a long-stalled process.

"These are Band-Aid fixes," said Navajo Nation Council Delegate Vince James, chair of the Health, Education, and Human Services Committee. "Eventually the GIMC campus will become unsafe."

GIMC is one of more than 60 facilities the IHS placed on a priority replacement list in 1993 due to age, physical condition, and growing patient demand. The constant construction activity and disjointed layout already make the campus difficult for elderly and disabled patients to navigate and complicate clinical operations for staff. The agency estimates clearing the entire backlog would require roughly $8 billion. In February, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged $1 billion toward the long-delayed projects, but Senior HHS Adviser Mark Cruz has pressed Congress for a larger special appropriation, warning that without one, the backlog could take another 40 years to resolve. "It's really unacceptable that we're still working off of that 33-year-old construction list," Cruz said.

Locally, the Navajo Nation Council has formally designated a site in Gamerco, just north of Gallup, for a replacement campus estimated to cost $1.2 billion. The new facility would expand GIMC's services to include behavioral health, long-term care, wellness, childcare, and staff housing. Earlier this month, Cruz and IHS Chief of Staff Clayton Fulton toured the Gamerco property, with Navajo Department of Health Executive Director Sherylene Yazzie leading the walkthrough.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren called the GIMC replacement the Nation's top healthcare infrastructure priority and identified a specific funding gap holding it back. "Restoring the $60 million originally intended for this project is essential to begin the planning and design work that will move this hospital replacement forward," Nygren said.

The site is chosen, federal officials have toured it, and Navajo leadership has unified around it. What remains unresolved is whether Congress will move on construction funding before the current campus reaches the breaking point James described.