PALOMPON, Leyte- Despite its sorry state, the Manuel V. Veloso District Hospital continues to serve the medical needs of the town and even those coming from nearby municipalities.This was disclosed by town Vice Mayor Myra Georgina Arevalo who was quick to say that they are “forced” to continue to operate the hospital despite of the damages it sustained due to supertyphoon Yolanda. Arevalo herself said that the Department of Health had earlier issued an order for the suspension of the operations of the said facility which is under the supervision of the provincial government.
However, the hospital management decided to continue to operate for them to serve the medical needs of the people, the vice mayor said. “We cannot turn down our patients after the typhoon. They have nowhere to go to especially that the road to Ormoc City was damaged,” Arevalo said, citing the reason why despite of the order from the DOH, they opted to continue the operations of the hospital. Ormoc is about 45 minutes drive away from Palompon. Ten months after the hospital suffered damage due to Yolanda, they have yet to repair said facility, the town mayor said. However, it was learned that the provincial government has allotted P100 million for either to repair the facility or build a new one. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
