BREAKING NEWS!

PROPOSED ORDINANCE TO PROHIBIT HOLDING BODIES EVEN WITH UNPAID HOSPITAL BILLS, PASSED THE FIRST READING

It is painful for Nina, whose real name is the deceased’s father.

But the pain was doubled when the hospital refused to allow her to take her father’s body right away.

But this might soon be resolved with the passage of the proposed ordinance in the Baguio Council, which prohibits holding or preventing relatives from retrieving the bodies of their deceased loved ones even with unpaid hospital bills.

This aims to protect the rights of patients and their families.

Under the proposed ordinance, families of the deceased can create a promissory note to retrieve the body.

Hospitals or medical clinics that refuse to issue a death certificate will also be penalized.

Here, clinics and hospitals may face fines of 20,000 pesos and one month of imprisonment for the first offense; 30,000 pesos and two months for the second offense; and 50,000 pesos and six months for the third and subsequent offenses.

This is also in accordance with Republic Act No. 9439, an act prohibiting the detention of patients in hospitals and medical clinics on grounds of non-payment of hospital bills or medical expenses.

The proposed ordinance has passed the first reading in the council and will undergo public consultation with healthcare providers in Baguio City before it is finalized and passed into law.

**JOSE ROBERT INVENTOR

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