Arrest warrant out vs 2 doctors for ‘illegal detention’ of patient over unpaid fees

MANILA, Philippines — An Ilocos Sur court has ordered the arrest of two doctors for allegedly detaining a psychiatric patient.

The warrant was issued on October 25 by Presiding Judge Homer Jay D. Ragonian of Regional Trial Court Branch 24 in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur against the doctors over “serious illegal detention”.

The doctors, identified as Jemaima Tan-Yee and Johann Tan-Yee, have allegedly detained a patient in a psychiatric and rehabilitation center for over five years supposedly because the patient failed to settle her hospital bill amounting to P294,000.

The case reached the court after Acting Provincial Prosecutor Ramil Lopez approved the filing of the complaint against the doctors.

According to the prosecutor’s resolution, the patient was first admitted to the rehabilitation center in March 2012 with the initial diagnosis being “Brief Psychotic Disorder” and that the mother was informed in September 2012 that her daughter can be discharged but the hospital bill of P294,168 had to be settled.

Through financial assistance from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, the mother was able to pay P46,000 but it was still not enough to settle the entire bill, the resolution noted. The doctors then offered to lower the amount to be paid to P200,000 – P100,000 to be paid in cash, while the rest would be paid in installment.

However, the court document said the mother could still not provide for the P100,000, allegedly leading to the patient not being allowed to leave the facility.

In September 2013, one of the doctors proposed that the patient work at the facility in exchange for a monthly pay of P2,500 – wherein P2,000 would be deducted to their bill while the remaining P500 would be used for the patient’s medicines, the resolution said.

But the complainants (patient and mother) allegedly later found out that the medicine given to the patient supposedly only amounted to P100 per month for a span of three months, and that purportedly, nothing was given to the patient in the succeeding months.

The bill also continued to rise and ballooned to over P4.1 million as of November 2018, according to court documents.

The patient was released only in March this year, shortly after the Provincial Prosecutor of Ilocos Sur issued a resolution indicting the respondents for serious illegal detention, which is a non-bailable offense.

INQUIRER.net tried to reach out to the doctors and the center through its Facebook page and the rehabilitation center’s available number online for their side but has yet replied as of posting time.

 Edited by KGA