The provincial government of Negros Oriental will begin the construction of a PHP10 million primary hospital in the remote Tamlang Valley to cater to the residents of barangays in Sta. Catalina, Valencia and adjacent towns.

Dr. Liland Estacion, officer-in-charge of the Provincial Health Office said Thursday the construction of the hospital will start on Jan. 23 and is expected to be finished by June this year.

Estacion said Governor Roel Degamo visited the construction site last weekend where they met with the engineers who are working on the layout of the hospital.

“The Tamlang Valley Community Primary Hospital is a 10-bed facility that will cater to the residents of remote barangays who barely have access to even primary health care because of their poor living conditions,” she said in mixed English and Cebuano.

Tamlang Valley, which covers Sta. Catalina, Siaton, Valencia and Sibulan towns, was known as a “no man’s land” in the late 80s and early 90s at the height of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army insurgency.

The hospital will be built on government-owned land in Sitio Badiang in Barangay Dobdob, Valencia.

Estacion said the provincial government will be hiring doctors, nurses and midwives for the hospital.

Apart from catering to primary cases, the hospital will also operate like a health center with a tuberculosis program and maternal and child health care, she added. (PNA)