Pineda has been manning the triage section of his hospital’s COVID-19 emergency unit.
With the more than 40 beds occupied by patients in critical condition, and the hallway lined with more patients in wheelchairs, Pineda had to decide who would get treatment and who would not.
He turned away more than half the people who came begging him to take in an ailing loved one, many of them struggling to breathe.
Some even knelt in front of him, begging to at least be allowed to wait in the hallway.
“Many of them said we were already the eighth or ninth hospital they tried, and if it were up to me, I really would have taken them in,” he said. “But there really was no room left.”
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 14) The Department of Health is ready to assist hospitals in ensuring compliance with their order on conducting regular COVID-19 tests for their health workers, an official said Wednesday.
In an interview with CNN Philippines The Source, Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire clarified the testing protocols being imposed by the government to ensure the safety of health workers while attending to COVID-19 patients.
Vergeire said the Health Department will seek ways to assist hospitals in ramping up testing after she acknowledged their financial limitations due to the pandemic. We are going to check on this and we will try to assist hospitals so they may be able to give that protection to health workers, Vergeire said.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte
(KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / FILE PHOTO)
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the statement as private hospitals lament unpaid claims supposedly amounting to P6 billion.
“President Duterte directed [PhilHealth] to expedite the payment of valid claims of hospitals today, April 8, 2021,” he wrote in his statement on Thursday.
In response, PhilHealth approved the application of a Debit-Credit Payment Method (DCPM) to facilitate the settlement of accounts payable to Health Care Facilities (HCFs) during the state of public health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roque said HCFs eligible for DCPM must be located in regions identified by the government pandemic task forces, such as the National Capital Region, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.
ARTA threatens sanctions over delayed PhilHealth payments bworldonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bworldonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(JANSEN ROMERO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea issued the reminder to PhilHealth president Dante Gierran to avoid delayed reimbursements given the crucial role of hospitals in the pandemic response, according to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
Gierran received Medialdea’s message loud and clear and has promised to ensure prompt payment to the hospitals.
“Nag-meeting pa po kami, tatlong oras kasama po si Executive Secretary at si Senator Bong Go at isa sa mga pinag-meeting-an natin ay iyon ngang sa PhilHealth at nangako naman po si Director Gierran na bibilisan niya iyong proseso (We had a meeting for three hours with Executive Secretary and Senator Bong Go and one of the agenda of the meeting was PhilHealth. Director Gierran pledged to hasten the process),” Roque said during a televised press briefing Monday April 5.