DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental—Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo ordered the investigation of a private hospital here for its alleged refusal to accept a patient under investigation (PUI) for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
During a special session of the city council on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, Dr. Liland Estacion, Integrated Provincial Health Officer and Incident Command System (ICS) commander, reported an incident wherein a PUI chose to be admitted in a private hospital. However, the hospital allegedly refused to accept the PUI.
Estacion said the PUI chose to be admitted into a private hospital.
“Di man sila modawat. I hope nga kining mga private hospitals mo cooperate lang unta sila ba. Ingon, naa sila ilang isolation ward. Nganong di nila dawaton?” Estacion said.
(They wouldn’t accept the patient. I hope that these private hospitals will cooperate. They say they have an isolation ward but why won’t they accept a PUI?)
Estacion was invited by the city council during the special session to give an update on the COVID-19 threat in the province.
The city has three private hospitals and one government hospital.
Remollo, the chairperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19, said that there is an existing directive from the Department of Health (DoH) that hospitals cannot refuse admission.
The mayor said that he will check if the refusal is justified.
“The mere fact that they are operating in Dumaguete and then Dumaguete issues a permit, they will have a problem with me,” Remollo said in an interview with CDN Digital.
According to the mayor, he will have the private hospital investigated.
Meanwhile, vice mayor Alan Gel Cordova said the city council has two choices on this latest issue.
It can either pass an ordinance, or ask the mayor or the governor to issue an executive order, mandating private hospitals to accept PUIs.
“[What we were discussing] is what to do about it. If it is going to be done by an executive order either the governor or the mayor, considering the hospital is here in Dumaguete, or should we pass an ordinance about that,” Cordova said. /bmjo