THE parents of an eight-month-old baby who died in a government hospital sought the help of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) 7 yesterday.
Marifhe Ylaya, mother of Harry Morgan Visaya, told reporters that they sought CHR’s help to compel St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital (SAMCH) to release documents, such as her son’s medical abstract.
Earlier, Harry Morgan’s parents said SAMCH officials refused to release documents on their son’s medical status, a claim that hospital officials didn’t deny.
PRC
Ylaya said that aside from CHR, they also plan to approach the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) for the filing of malpractice charges against SAMCH doctors.
Earlier, Ylaya and her live-in partner Haryl Visaya sought the help of Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.
Documents
In a separate interview, CHR 7 investigator Leo Villarino said that while they will help Harry Morgan’s parents in compelling the hospital to release the documents, they cannot conduct their own investigation on the incident.
Villarino said they will leave it to the Department of Health (DOH) 7 to investigate SAMCH.
“We will not assume that we are experts on this field. We will wait until the DOH concludes its investigation,” he told reporters yesterday.
Inter-agency
An inter-agency investigation, Villarino said, is also inappropriate because it would only undermine the DOH’s authority to investigate the hospital.
Meanwhile, the DOH 7 has not yet received the results of SAMCH’s in-house investigation.
A staff member of DOH 7 Director Jaime Bernadas told reporters that as of 11 a.m. yesterday, SAMCH has not provided them with a report on what happened.
Bernadas earlier told SAMCH to provide them a report on the incident within 72 hours since Tuesday.