Officials of Carmen Copper Corp. (CCC) led by Ignacio Alburo, assistant vice president for general services of CCC, lay the time capsule during the groundbreaking ceremony of the construction of a CCC hospital ramp and perimeter fence project.
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P5.8 M project will benefit residents of host barangays of Carmen Copper Corp.
The Carmen Copper Corp. Hospital (CCC Hospital) will open its doors to indigent patients of the firm’s 17 host and neighboring barangays, once work on the renovation of the hospital’s charity ward will be completed within the year.
According to Carmen Copper Corp. in a statement, the P5.8-million project, work of which officially started last March 8, will involve the renovation of the ward, the construction of the hospital ramp and the perimeter fence.
This three-story, 30-bed facility was built during 1980s to serve the thousands of employees of then Atlas Mining Corp. It is also a level 1 hospital.
Today the hospital serves the 2,500 employees of Carmen Copper Corp., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. in Toledo City in western Cebu.
“These facilities will advance our health care system and will give our brothers and sisters in the community access to health services. The hospital ramp, particularly, is an essential structure to improve our emergency response, especially during disasters like earthquake. The construction of the perimeter fence shall also improve security within the hospital area,” said Ignacio B. Alburo, assistant vice president for general services.
The CCC Hospital is in Don Andres Soriano, which was formerly known as Barangay Lutopan.
Alburo was referring to the company’s Social Development and Management Program, which includes the Doktor to the Barangay Project (DBP), where a hired family and community medicine specialist and registered volunteer nurses are deployed to seven remote barangays in Toledo City that have little access to health care services.
The CCC, in a statement, said that these ongoing projects when completed would complement DBP.
Currently, the CCC Hospital accepts private patients on a case-to-case basis like emergency cases or through the DBP. In 2016, DBP referred 23 indigent patients to CCC Hospital in whom seven patients were for laboratory, 12 for X-ray, one admission and three for minor surgeries.
The charity ward when completed will serve patients from the 17 host and neighboring barangays of Carmen Copper Corp., said Sofia Picardal, senior corporate communications officer.
The host barangays are those barangays impacted by the mining operations and these include Barangays Don Andres Soriano, Media Once and Loay, said Picardal.
The nearest hospital in Toledo City is the Toledo City General Hospital in the city proper, Balamban District Hospital in Balamban town and South General Hospital in the City of Naga, which are all miles away, especially for residents of remote barangays.
“As we formally start these projects, we affirm our commitment to bring the most possible care and outcome to our employees and make excellent healthcare available to the community,” Alburo said.
The projects are expected to be completed within five months or by early September 2017./PR
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