DOH gets complaints vs Valenzuela hospital for detaining patients’ kin

Facade of the Department of Health office in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said it had acknowledged four complaints of unlawful detention of relatives of patients with outstanding bills at a private hospital in Valenzuela City.

But the Health Facilities and Services Regulatory Bureau (HFSRB) of the DOH said it dismissed two of the four complaints, saying these were beyond the department’s authority.

HFSRB instead found two other offenses committed by private hospital ACE Medical Center (ACEMC)—a failure to register the birth of a baby girl in 2022 because her family could not afford to pay her delivery, and the misrepresentation of a room for COVID-19 care during the pandemic.

Cases for courts

In a statement, the DOH said “The two cases [of unlawful detention] were dismissed for the reason that the DOH is not the appropriate government tribunal with the power to enforce the antihospital detention law (Republic Act No. 9439).”

“The DOH will not tolerate and shall act on any administrative violations by our health-care institutions. [But] for alleged violations of statutory laws that require judicial intervention beyond our powers, we urge the concerned parties to seek justice before the proper courts,” the DOH quoted Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa as saying.

‘Replacements’

“We will continue to monitor and enforce compliance across all hospitals and medical facilities to guarantee that they meet the administrative and licensing standards set forth by the Department, prioritizing the welfare of the public at all times,” he added.

The DOH had no further explanation on the two other complaints of unlawful detention other than to note that the hospital, in all these instances, “unlawfully detained relatives of patients until outstanding medical bills were settled”

The practice, colloquially referred to as “palit ulo,” involved requiring relatives of patients to have “replacements,” or persons present in their behalf, if they wished to leave the hospital.

Another violation

As for ACEMC’s failure to register the birth of a baby girl in 2022, HFSRB said the hospital violated Department Circular No. 2020-0120 and Administrative Order No. 2012-0012 of the DOH—both directives requiring all hospitals to register births, regardless of the financial status of the parents.

The bureau also said the hospital, during the COVID-19 pandemic, misrepresented a room with two beds without noting a partition indicating a private area in that room. This was in violation of guidelines in COVID-19 hospital care, as outlined in the DOH Department Memorandum No. 2020-0178, HFSRB said.

The bureau did not say if a penalty was imposed on the hospital’s failure to register the birth. But for the second offense, an administrative fine of P30,000 was imposed on ACEMC. INQ