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By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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MANILA – Senate health chair Risa Hontiveros said her committee will investigate the Jan. 11 incident involving a woman giving birth in a taxi.
An investigation by her office showed that 22-year-old Aira Arellano was turned away from two hospitals.
A public hospital in Caloocan allegedly assessed that Arellano went into labor prematurely and had no incubator for the baby, Hontiveros said.
After giving birth inside a cab, she added that the new mother was brought to a private hospital in Fairview, but was also refused because she could not afford their fees.
“No life should be unnecessary put at risk, no person should be denied adequate and quality medical care just because they are poor and our government-run hospitals cannot adequately respond to their emergency medical needs,” said the senator.
Her committee will coordinate with the Department of Health to get an inventory of the facilities at state-funded hospitals and determine legislative and budgetary interventions that can improve health services.
Hontiveros filed Senate Bill No. 216 or the “Amendments to the Anti-Hospital Deposit Act” that aims to impose stiffer penalties on hospitals demanding any deposit prior to admission.
“We cannot tolerate hospitals denying mothers and their children health services in their time of urgent need. Where will our people go if they can’t get medical help from either public or private hospitals?” Hontiveros ended./PN
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