MANKAYAN, Benguet – Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong expressed disappointment over the alleged poorly-managed isolation centers following the complaints raised by some of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients who used the said centers.
Ayong explained that during the earlier wave of COVID cases in the municipality, the municipal government and the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) agreed that the municipal government will be in charge of the operation of the Casubigan isolation center while the mining company will take charge of the operation of the additional isolation centers established in the different schools around the mining camp.
“We thought all the while that we agreed on certain terms and conditions and the delineation of our responsibilities on the operation of our isolation centers. However, we were disappointed to hear complaints from our patients who recovered from the virus on the poor management of our isolation centers in the schools,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
The municipal chief executive claimed that the wisdom behind the agreed tasking between the involved parties is to ensure that the confirmed COVID cases confined in the different isolation center will be treated well, as the same will reflect on the credibility of the agencies and institutions given specific tasks to handle the operation of the established isolation centers.
However, he admitted it was just unfortunate that some quarters did not do their assigned duties and responsibilities in the management and operation of the present isolation centers that caused the patients who were discharged from the said facilities to express their dismay on how they were treated during their prescribed 14-day isolation in the schools that were converted into isolation units for the municipality.
While he apologized to the recovered patients who encountered the lackluster management and operation of some of the isolation facilities, Ayong stated that some quarters must be made answerable to the poor service in such facilities as the situation could have been avoided if certain parties performed well their assigned duties and responsibilities without trying to scrimping as the health and safety of the people who were infected with the deadly virus were at stake.
He asserted that such scenarios in the isolation centers should have been avoided if concerned parties were committed to perform their assigned duties and responsibilities to deliver the utmost care and support to patients after they were required to undergo the treatment from assigned health workers in the facilities.
He underscored that the municipal government had been dealing with the COVID scenario in the municipality with utmost care for the patients who were confined in the Casubigan isolation center which was their responsibility to operate, but not the isolation centers in the different public elementary and high schools inside and outside the mine camp. By HENT