Wednesday, January 30, 2008 Journalist hits 'rigid' hospital rule
MABALACAT -- A Pampanga-based journalist has decried a local hospital here for suspending the provision of medicines and other medical needs from its pharmacy that are critical for the recovery of his father from a debilitating heart problem.
Noel Tulabut, a columnist of Sun.Star Pampanga, said St. Raphael Hospital in Barangay Dau here has ordered the suspension of internal supply of medicines after they failed to pay additional deposits for the use of an Intensive Critical Unit (ICU).
Tulabut's father, Lazaro, 81, was rushed to the hospital on January 22. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema. He has been in ICU since his admission.
"I understand that hospitals have certain policies. But I believe that the life of a patient that is in critical condition should take precedence over and above certain rules. Whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath and mission statements to save lives that are to be professed by medical practitioners and hospitals?" Tulabut said.
Tulabut lamented that on Monday night his sister who was taking watch on his father had to plead with the hospital staff to draw from their pharmacy Dobutamine and Dopamine -- as they were not able to find these from nearest local drugstores.
The hospital staff reasoned that they couldn't draw these from their pharmacy because of "insufficient deposit." These two medicines -- vital to his precarious condition -- were only given after Tulabut requested for a hospital officer who can be talked to which the staff said was not available at that time.
"We are not running away from any financial obligations and we are putting up money to comply. But the hospital should be more considerate especially in providing vital medicines," Tulabut said
Tulabut's family has started to buy their father's medicines from local drugstores since Saturday when they were told of the "suspension order". This, despite their second round of deposit made on same day. He did not specify the amount.
They were also subjected to "cash-basis only" and had to pay the hospital prior to any procedure and laboratory tests. The hospital staff was also insistent that they pay the corresponding amount for the oxygen used by their father. The family feared that oxygen, which is a lifeline to a person with heart ailment, might also be discontinued for "insufficient deposits."
