With a working monthly budget of P1 million against an expenditure of P4 million, the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) will be at the risk of closure if it will not substantially improve income from its patients.
With this predicament, even indigent patients who would be occupying private rooms in government hospitals will be obliged to either pay cash or mortgage something of value before they be allowed to leave the hospitals with unpaid bills.
This was the statement issued by Dr. Edgar D. Pizarras, spokesman of the GCGMH following complaints from patients that the government hospital will not release them if they could not settle their accounts, either cash or leave a guarantee note, promissory note or mortgage.
He cited Republic Act 9439 otherwise known as the Anti-detention law of which the hospital adopts as its guiding policy in handling cases related to the releasing of indigent patients after their hospitalization.
The law, according to Dr, Pizarras, mandates that patients under the charity ward who have pending bills are released as long as they can produce a promissory note or get a guarantee note from acceptable individuals. However, he clarified that private patients who have pending bills are not released unless there is no guarantee or mortgage.
Despite this policy, the GCGMH continues to be filled with patients especially those coming from the towns.
