STRAIGHT TO THE POINT: Firing of three nurses: A warning for all in the medical field

Atty. Ruphil Bañoc

Ironically, just when his managerial duty is about to end, he is starting to learn the so called “political will,” a quality necessary for a good chief executive.

Cebu Governor Hillario Davide III finally fired the three nurses of Tuburan District Hospital who violated the laws and shrugged off their medical ethics in dealing with their patient. They do not have a place in public service.

The termination of the three nurses emanated from their own doings. They took video of a patient, who was a victim of a shooting incident, in the emergency room of the hospital and uploaded the same on social media sites.

Such video that went viral within a fraction of a second further showed their insensitiveness and failure to give immediate medical care to the dying patient. The hospital’s security guard even appeared better than the nurses as he was captured in the camera wearing surgical gloves in approaching the patient. What a shame!

That the patient, Jimby Casas, was a shooting incident victim, who reportedly fought back during the police operation, is beside the point. When the victim was brought by the police to the hospital for medical treatment, the ball at that juncture was already in the court of the hospital.

The medical personnel therein had to do their duties to give immediate medical treatment to the patient, regardless of the circumstances surrounding his being brought to the hospital. But the way they treated the victim only showed how they performed as public servants.

All these led to the following questions: How many times did they fail to take immediate actions on their patients? Was it the first time? Is it not a fact that there were blatant failures in the past that happened in the same hospital?

Note that the Provincial Health Office (PHO), led by Dr. Rene Catan, is the one who has jurisdictions over these hospitals. This time the PHO grievance committee was the one who conducted the investigation and forwarded a recommendation and, in turn, the governor in agreed to terminate the services of the three nurses.

The PHO and the governor made the right decision. The people of Cebu deserve better public servants. At least this gives them a lesson or two, and other hospital personnel can make reflections out of the said incident.

The role of Dr. Catan in dealing with the issues of the district hospitals is very crucial. His actions reflect the performance of the governor in giving health care to his constituents.

But what about the previous issues that did not go viral and which involved the same hospital? What actions did the PHO take? What about those issues when the doctors were involved? How about the failures of other district hospitals?

Is the governor really starting to learn or is there just a selective justice here?