The Week That Was For Candoni

Now I have enough energy to look back and reflect on the week that was. It was actually a hectic week for the Main health center. Not only that there were relatively many emergency cases this week, the week was actually PIR week. PIR is program implementation review and we conducted our PIR for the mid-year of 2009. I was too frustrated that it was more of data reconciliation rather than assessment and planning for our acceleration plan. I told my staff that we must be able to reach our target by the end of the year and that those who can reach their targets and even surpass the expected targets will be receiving performance bonuses on top of their other year-end bonuses.

I do hope they can reach their targets and I do hope the community will really appreciate the value of the work of these frontliners. If not for these front-liners in public health, there will be no Strong Republic. It is so unfortunate though that these frontliners are the least appreciated. Health it would seem is not a priority of this government.

In the afternoon of the PIR, I gathered the staff for our monthly regular meeting and we discussed our activities for the Lung Month. The objective actually is to increase awareness on Pulmonary Tuberculosis and to help promote Anti-smoking among adolescents. This year, I have been involving the adolescents more frequently compared to last year. The first participation of the adolescents was during our It Can Wait campaign.

Wednesday was supposed to be a holiday but I spent the special holiday with the staff watching the funeral cortege of the former president Corazon Aquino. We could not help but feel sad for such a great loss. While watching the funeral mass, the staff who reported to work that day started talking about Martial law and where they were during those times. Of course, during those years, Candoni was immersed in insurgency. At present, there are far-flung areas of Candoni that are believed to be still supportive of insurgents.


Among the many emergencies I was able to encounter during the week were actually minor traumas: hack wounds, foreign body (fish hook) in situ, lacerated wounds, even a couple of dog bites (Category III). Of course, we need not mention the normal deliveries we would cater in our health center. We would always have at least one delivery per day.

I am looking forward to next week. The town will be celebrating its town anniversary on the 12th. As part of our pre-town anniversary celebrations, we will be holding our Breastfeeding Olympics.

I was also told that the monitoring team for DTTBs will be coming on the 19th-21st of August. So, I will be preparing my papers and documents for presentation. The countdown begins.