Hospital exec: Napoles’ security violated visiting policies
MANILA, Philippines—Security personnel guarding Janet Lim-Napoles were found to have violated the visiting policies in the Ospital ng Makati (OsMak).
Dr. Perry Ishmael Peralta, OsMak Medical Director, said on Monday before the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) that reports have reached his office that their policies on the visiting hours and number of visitors are being violated.
Peralta said the OsMak has designated the visiting hours from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. everyday with only two visitors allowed per patient.
But Peralta pointed out that he was unsure whether Napoles herself was briefed on the visiting polices.
This was after Dr. Florentina Villanueva, an obstetrician gynecologist supervising the medical team assigned to Napoles, that the patient’s bleeding may have been caused by the influx of her visitors.
“She has a lot of friends, a lot of visitors even at night,” Villanueva said.
In compliance with the court order, he said the close-in security of Napoles is a responsibility of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and not the OsMak.
The PNP tapped the personnel of the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) Calabarzon to secure Napoles even in OsMak, the same agency tasked to secure her at her detention facility in Fort Sto. Domingo.
Peralta said the PNP showed them “a very long list of authorized visitors.”
But even those outside the list, he said, were able to enter Napoles’ room.
“People from the media are not in the list. But (we learned) that some media personalities have been allowed to visit her. That’s a clear violation,” he said.
Napoles’ counsel, Stephen David, said that his client had been complaining because “there were a lot of visitors” in her room.
The medical director said the OsMak management has started investigating the violations on Monday morning.
Asked what would be the sanction for violating the hospital policies, Peralta said they have “nothing written” on sanctioning patients.
“All that we can do is to keep on reminding them,” he added.
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