Palace: Hospitals face charges for rejecting woman

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has vowed to pursue charges against the hospitals that reportedly refused to admit a 26-year-old woman who had just given birth.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque warned the management of health institutions that they could be jailed for rejecting patients or demanding a deposit before admitting a patient.

“The penalty for that is imprisonment. So we will jail the doctors, the hospital owners who became the reason why this patient died,” he said at a press briefing on Monday.

He added that Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra had assured him that they would investigate the death due to loss of blood of Katherine Bulatao, who was allegedly turned away by six hospitals on Friday night.