MANILA, Philippines — The government on Monday vowed to run after the hospitals that allegedly refused to admit a 26-year-old woman who died of childbirth.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Department of Justice (DOJ) has assured that it would look into the death of Katherine Bulatao, who gave birth in their house in Barangay 183, North Caloocan City but needed hospital care due to complication and bleeding.
According to the family, six hospitals refused to provide Bulatao medical treatment with one even asking for a P30,000 deposit for the operation, an act prohibited under the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law or Republic Act 10932.
The law provides stricter penalties on hospitals that demand any deposit or other forms of advance payment as a prerequisite for admission or medical treatment of an emergency patient.
Violation of the law includes four to six years imprisonment and a fine of up to P1 million.
“Ikukulong po natin lahat na mga doktor, lahat ng may-ari ng ospital na naging dahilan po kaya namatay itong pasyenteng ito,” Roque said in an online press briefing in Malacañang.
(Doctors, hospital owners who would be found responsible for the death of the patient would be sent to jail.)
President Duterte earlier warned hospitals against turning away patients amid the COVID-19 crisis after reports reached his office about a patient in Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija who died after being refused admission by six hospitals.
“You know that’s wrong. So if that’ true, I will really ask the justice department to prosecute you. You know that’s not allowed,” Duterte said in a recent late-night public address.
“Everyone who is sick — heart attack, appendicitis, a brain that ruptured– especially government hospital, my order is must accept admission. You fail on that, I will relieve all of you in the hospital and you consider yourselves suspended because the written order will follow,” he added.