QC hospitals may soon be required to register all births
MANILA, Philippines — A proposed ordinance that would require hospitals and birthing clinics in Quezon City to immediately register births, including those of illegitimate children, with the local civil registrar and penalize them for failure to do so is under review by the city council.
Another draft measure proposes to require their timely reporting of baby deliveries as well as maternal and neonatal deaths to the local health department and to penalize non-compliance with fines from P1,000 to P5,000.
The ordinance, authored by fourth district councilor Jessica Castelo-Daza, requiring the registration within 30 days of birth has been referred to the council’s committees on health and sanitation; on children’s affairs; and on laws, rules and internal government, for further study.
In seeking the enactment of the measure, Daza has said that while the law requires the registration of a child’s birth in the city or municipality office of the civil registrar within a month from the time of birth, “hospitals and birthing homes or lying-in clinics do not facilitate the registration of illegitimate children because of requirements and documents needed for such kind of registration.”
She said, “In order to avoid late or non -registration of the children, particularly illegitimate children, there is a need to require hospitals and birthing homes or lying-in clinics in Quezon City to facilitate the registration of newborn babies in the civil registrar office of the Quezon City regardless of their legitimacy.”
Apart from requiring hospitals and birthing clinics to submit to the Quezon City office of the civil registrar birth certificates of newborns within 30 days from birth, parents are directed to submit the necessary documents within the period.
A hospital, birthing home or lying-in clinic found violating the ordinance will be fined P1,000 for a first offense; P2,000 for a second violation; and P5,000 for a third and succeeding offense.
The local office of the civil registrar is to ensure that the measure is properly implemented and the corresponding implementing rules and regulations formulated.
Meanwhile, Daza proposed another ordinance requiring all hospitals and birthing homes to submit to the Quezon City health department a monthly report on the number of live births as well as maternal and neonatal deaths in their respective institutions.
Daza said that to enable the local health department to establish accurate and updated information on maternal and newborn deaths, hospitals and birthing homes must be required to report to submit a monthly report on such cases. She added that updated data would be vital to the success of vital public health care programs.
She pointed out, “Maternal deaths are highly preventable through an effective public health program such as family planning, antenatal care and health facilities.”
For a first offense, a hospital administrator or birthing home owner will be slapped with a fine of P1,000 while a second offense would merit a P2,000 fine. A third violation and succeeding offense would be fined P5,000.
Apart from the fine, the hospital administrator or birthing home owner will be required to submit the monthly report on births and deaths to the Quezon City health department, which would be tasked to implement the ordinance and draft the corresponding implementing rules and regulations.
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