THE Provincial Board of Negros Occidental plans to impose sanctions on hospitals in the province who will not accept persons under investigation (PUIs) of 2019-novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD), Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer said Tuesday, February 4.

“We will formulate a provincial ordinance by next week based on a draft from the Provincial Health Office,” Ferrer said.

The proposed legislative action comes on the heels of reports that one of the two PUIs with suspected 2019-nCoV ARD was denied admission by a private hospital in Bacolod City and instead referred to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital.

The vice governor said that if the report is true, the hospital probably has no quarantine area for such cases. However, he said, “They have to accept the patients and not just refer them to other hospitals especially those owned by the government. That is their mandate.”

Ferrer said they are thinking of imposing penalties on erring health facilities.