No patient admissions yet for Asturias infirmary

CEBU, Philippines -  The Asturias infirmary will continue to not admit patients pending the go signal from the Department of Health-7 which issued a six-page fact-finding result recommending the temporary suspension of patient admission in the facility.  

This after the investigation conducted in August this year regarding an alleged negligence involving a doctor that put the life of a nine-month old baby at stake.

The investigation result was signed by fact-finding team chairman Dr. Sophia Mancao who heads the DOH Licensing Division along with members lawyer Madyll Cuadra-Robinta, Dr. Philip Yray, Jr., Engr. Vivencio Ediza, Jr., Marigold Uy, Christine Joy Cabatit and approved by regional director Jaime Bernadas.

Three recommendations were stated in the report, including the requirement for the infirmary to hire a doctor who will be on duty at any time and a reliever. The doctor would be an additional worker to help municipal health officer Dr. Risalde Climaco.

A compliance report also has to be submitted to the DOH for the agency to discern if the suspension of admission can be lifted or otherwise.

Another recommendation was for the improvement of the nursing procedural manual and Kardex. The Kardex is a card-filing system as reference of the needs of a patient. The last recommendation was to have the infirmary’s personnel undergo capability trainings.

Asturias Mayor Alan Adlawan, in a phone interview, confirmed the receipt of the recommendation from the DOH fact-finding committee which the municipa-lity had heeded even a month before the written findings were made.

This was because the fact-finding team, which inspected the medical facility, explained to Adlawan the lapses found immediately after the assessment.

Adlawan likewise said the town has hired one additional doctor, Terence Cabajug, who would be on-call 24 hours.

Adlawan disclosed that it was already late when it came to their attention that the town’s MHO should not be allowed to work in the infirmary from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday.

“We knew it very late nga ingon ana diay. So, we add one more nga committed na gyod sa infirmary. Gisweldohan na gane,” he said.

According to Adlawan, prior the alleged incident, the Asturias infirmary had three doctors including Dr. Climaco who rendered services at night while the two others reported to the facility on an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule.

Climaco was invited to appear before the members of the PB during one of its session in August to shed light on the issue of alleged negligence, which he vehemently denied.

This also prompted the PB to call on DOH-7 to look into the issue and the report that there was no doctor assigned in the infirmary du-ring weekends when it is supposed to operate 24 hours every day.

The FREEMAN contacted Climaco but the calls were left unanswered. —(FREEMAN)