TACLOBAN CITY – The ongoing rehabilitation of damaged health facilities here in the region has a total fund of P322 million. This was disclosed by Doctor Jose Llacuna, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH) who added that the rehabilitation has 60% identified projects which are ongoing with 40% now on their preparation phase or bidding process. “The entire budget requirement for quick fix has been downloaded already. We expect to complete all projects by the end of 2014,” Llacuna said. The quick fix has 34 towns listed in Leyte, nine towns listed in Eastern Samar, three towns in Samar and two towns in Biliran. “By 2015, we hope to complete the construction of bigger, better and safer health facilities,” Llacuna said. A total of P1.2 billion budget was approved for rehabilitation of destroyed health facilities in the three regions of Visayas. And of this allocation, P702.76 million was recorded for health facilities and P274.86 million for equipment. The DOH reported that 1,229 facilities were destroyed by during the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda.
Of this number, 991 were barangay health stations, 153 were rural health units, 68, local-managed hospitals, seven city or district health centers, six retained hospitals, three private hospitals and a municipal health office.(JONA MAE ESTIL, LNU Intern)
