Thursday, August 30, 2007
Private hospitals to proceed with 'hospital holiday' (9:15 p.m.)
MANILA -- After suspending its plan three months ago, the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (Phap) has decided to go on with its plan to launch "hospital holiday," with only emergency cases will be accepted.
Phap spokesman Rustico Jimenez said they will push through with the hospital holiday to denounce the passage of a law that prohibits them from detaining patients who failed to settle their bills.
Phap members were supposed to launch hospital holiday last May, but the Department of Health convinced them to suspend their plan and asked them to sit down for the formulation of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9439 or the Hospital Detention Law.
"We are not satisfied with the IRR. We made recommendations but they reject it. The law and the IRR are one-sided. They do not provide protection to hospitals," Jimenez said.
"We are just finalizing when it (hospital holiday) will be done but this will be soon. This is on voluntary basis for our members," he said.
Phap has 500 members, including biggest hospitals in Metro Manila like St. Luke's Hospital and Makati Medical Center.
Under the plan, Phap members will accept only emergency cases.
Jimenez said they would hold protests twice a month until the law is repealed.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, meantime, urged Phap members to call off their protests for the sake of the patients.
"I am appealing to Phap. Anyway, private hospitals get 70 percent of the total reimbursement from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) while government hospitals only get 30 percent although their share of the nationwide hospital beds are 50-50," he said.
Duque said he would try to meet with Phap members on Monday to discuss the issue. (MSN/Sunnex) |
