DOH MINDANAO leads Yolanda Health Relief – Leyte The battle of survival for life continues everyday here in Tacloban and the entire Province of Leyte. Helpless people are walking along the streets in any direction with no direction looking for food, water and shelter. Decaying dead bodies are scattered along the road making the air unsanitary to breathe. Tacloban City is literally a total wreck. The city was turned into a garbage as a footprint of the worlds renowned super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). In the first few days after the typhoon health relief operations were not that systematic and organized resulting from improper coordination that further delays the intervention. Currently, the situation in Tacloban and the rest of the Province of Leyte is starting to stabilized after health humanitarian relief operations was took over by the DOH Mindanao Cluster Head Assistant Secretary Romulo A. Busuego, a week after the typhoon. Proper coordination was implemented resulting to a more systematic and organized relief operations. Service capability of the tertiary hospital was resumed as the team from DOH Mindanao Cluster composed of health human resource from Davao Regional Hospital, Southern Philippines Medical Center and LGU-General Santos City took over the operation of the biggest private hospital in Tacloban the Divine Word Hospital formerly St. Pauls Hospital to refrain from transferring of patients in tertiary centers outside the island while the only DOH-Retained Hospital, Eastern Visayas Regional and Medical Center (EVRMC), is on the process of restoring its usual services . Major surgeries were performed by the team in their rehabilitated operating room and mobile hospital, which include those cases from EVRMC that were supposed to be airlifted to Cebu or Manila for definitive surgical interventions since the said hospital was also paralyzed by the typhoon. Health services by specialty were also resumed in the makeshift ER-OPD in collaboration with the Divine Word Hospital staff and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) as well as in-patient services. Public health concerns were also addressed by mobilizing different CHDs and other DOH Retained Hospitals to the different district hospitals and RHUs in the province. Foreign Medical Assistance Coordinating Center was also established to ensure coordinated and proper deployment of foreign medical teams according to their respective health service capabilities. These results were recognized by the Secretary of Health Dr. Enrique T. Ona and appreciated by the international communities working in the said province with the same cause. We took pride in the said commendation by the secretary of health as well as from the international communities since DOH Mindanao Cluster is now taking the lead in health humanitarian relief operation among the affected areas of the province of Leyte. After all, these might be the reason why Mindanao has been challenged by several catastrophic events in the recent past: Typhoon Sendong, Typhoon Pablo, Zamboanga Crisis, etc. Maybe to prepare the DOH Mindanao Cluster for the biggest disaster! Super-Typhoon Haiyan, locally known Yolanda. Perhaps the Lord knows Mindanao got the best DOH General – Asec. Romulo A. Busuego, MD, FPCS, FPSGS, MPA - the man who ran after Yolanda! BANGON TACLOBAN! TINDOG LEYTE! MABUHAY ANG DOH! LONG LIVE PILIPINAS! By Rodel Migue Flores A Surgeon by profession. A Public Servant by calling.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 10:01:13 +0000
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