The Department of Health regional office in the Negros Island Region (NIR) is setting up a satellite office in Bacolod City, DOH Undersecretary for the Visayas Mary Ann Maestral assured on Monday, July 29.
Maestral, former chief of the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City, is now the DOH Undersecretary for the Visayas, covering Western, Central and Eastern Visayas, and the NIR.
Among her tasks is to oversee the establishment of the DOH regional office in the NIR that will be based in Negros Oriental as stated in the law creating the new region.
The setting up of the satellite office in Bacolod will spare people from Negros Occidental from having to go to Dumaguete City for submission of documents and for other business with the DOH regional office, Maestral said.
Maestral said she has already signed a request for the allocation of a budget for the satellite office.
The DOH regional office in the NIR is currently operating with savings from the department’s Region 6 and 7 and personnel, she said.
Dr. Razel Nikka Hao, the DOH regional director assigned to the NIR, is very good and competent, Maestral said.*