CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The Commission on Human Rights–Region 3 will investigate the reported “hostaging” of the ashes and medical records of Covid-19 patients by a hospital in Angeles City.
Jason Carmona, Special Investigator III of the CHR3 regional office here, said Thursday his team is set to pay a visit to the Philippine Rehabilitation Institute (PRI) Medical Center for its management to shed light of the incident as part of an impartial investigation.
A complaint, Carmona said, was forwarded by a netizen to the CHR-3 office backed up by news articles in online publications widely shared in social media.
Punto! Central Luzon was among the first publications to break the story yesterday, April 15.
Part of the CHR-3 investigation, Carmona said, willalso the documentation of a formal complaint from Geoffrey Santos, son of the deceased couple Dr. Renato and Aurora Santos, who both succumbed to Covid-19 on March 29 and April 6 respectively at the PRI.
It was the younger Santos that sent a letter to media on April 14 detailing the experiences he encountered in trying to retrieve the ashes of his mother and the medical records of two other relatives who were also confined with his parents at the hospital.
Santos alleged that he was asked for “full settlement”of the hospital bill amounting to some P2.5 million before PRI would release the urn containing his mother’s ashes and the medical records including laboratory tests.
Santos said that on hearing the news that the Philippine Health Insurance would shoulder all medical expenses for Covid-19 patients, he asked the PRI for a consideration of it in settling their hospital bills but was refused.
Without any prejudice to the investigation, Carmona said “hostaging” of patients including medical records by hospitals is a criminal offense punishable under the law.
It can be recalled that last March 28, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin ordered the shutdown of PRI operations after it failed to inform the local government unit of Covid-19 patients from Quezon City admitted in said hospital.
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease however had the PRI opened due to the rising numbers of persons under monitoring and persons under investigation.
Repeated calls to PRI for its side of the issue were not returned as of posting time.
