COTABATO CITY – Provincial and regional authorities in the Bangsamoro region have reopened a mothballed government hospital in Parang, Maguindanao to serve as another isolation facility for possible additional cases of the dreaded coronavirus disease (COPVID-19).
Idled for at least 24 years due to financial and political issues, the 50-bed Parang District Hospital had entailed basic internal and external renovations before it was ceremonially opened on Tuesday to accommodate new COVID-19 patients, according to Bangsamoro Health Minister Saffrullah Dipatuan.
Dr. Dipatuan and Bangsamoro Cabinet Minister Mohammad Asnin Pendatun, who represented Chief Minister Ahod “Hadji Murad” Ebrahim, were joined by Maguindanao Governor Meriam Sangki-Mangudadatu and other local officials in the ceremony.
The regional autonomous bureaucracy will assist the provincial government in refurbishing the reopened hospital to reactivate operations as regular district hospital once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, it was learned.
Gov. Mangudadatu said the reactivation of the hospital brought to 18 the number of COVID-19 isolation facilities in her province, adding that administration envisioned to put up isolation facility in all of the 26 towns in her turf.
Parang town Mayor Cahar Ibay, who hosted Tuesday’s ceremony, expressed gratitude to the regional and provincial governments for reopening the hospital to “end our difficulties” in bringing patients to Cotabato City and other centers for hospital confinement.
Minister Pendatun assured the regional government’s continued support to health and other priority concerns in the global pandemic, citing their releases of more or less P1.9-billion to bankroll measures meant to contain the speared of COVID-19 disease.
“We were able to give assistance to at least 3,000 patients, most of them were discharged without paying any bill,” he added.
Pendatun stressed that while the number of Covid-19 cases in the BARMM is “significantly lower compared to other regions, this does not mean that we can already be complacent.” (Ali G. Macabalang)