MANILA, (PNA) –Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Enrique Ona said Tuesday that the Department of Health (DOH) has sent additional medicines to augment the supply of its field office in Zamboanga City for treating victims of the recent attack of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Secretary Ona also assured indigent victims that their medical needs will be covered by PhilHealth.
He made this statement as part of his report to President Benigno Aquino III on the health status of Zamboanga City citizens.
Ona revealed that the DOH Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) in Zamboanga Peninsula, which is on Code Blue Alert, has allocated assorted drugs and medicines for the use of the make-shift hospital that was established at the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) gym where patients were transferred from the Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC).
ZCMC, a 200-bed capacity hospital and adjacent to where the MNLF group stays, is currently being used as the command post of the AFP.
The DOH-CHD has provided assorted drugs and medicines for the Don Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex.
About twenty (20) nurses and two (2) medical technicians were deployed to the WMSU gymnasium to provide assistance to the displaced families.
He said that due to security reasons, health personnel stationed in Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) gymnasium are deployed, and escorted by the military, when medical intervention is needed in the evacuation centers.
The City Health Office also sent a medical team composed of five (5) doctors, three (3) nurses, and one (1) midwife to WMSU gymnasium, while the Philippine Red Cross stationed seventeen (17) doctors and thirty-two (32) nurses.
“We will be continuously monitoring the situation to provide a swift response to the citizens of Zamboanga City,” Ona added.