Negros Occidental provincial government hospitals should not turn away emergency cases on the basis of non-referral from the One Hospital Command (OHC), Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has asked the Negros Occidental mayors to come up with their position on the OHC amid complaints raised on delays in attending to patients because of the OHC referral system.
“People have died because of the delays,” Cadiz Mayor Salvador Escalante, Negros Association of Chief Executives president, said on Tuesday.
“When patients are brought to hospitals they have to wait in tricycles or ambulances until referrals are cleared,” he said.
Toboso Mayor Richard Jaojoco said the OHC implementing guidelines need to be revisited because of the delays in the hospital admission of patients who have to wait in rural health units.
The OHC was a big help during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“But I don’t think we still need the OHC because lives are at stake and it is important that patients are brought to hospitals right away,” Jaojoco said.
“We should abolish it,” Jaojoco said.
The provincial government runs nine hospitals throughout Negros Occidental.
Diaz said the OHC is a tool for organizing the hospital referral system.
The problem is not the system but in the staff at triage and emergency rooms who turn away patients delivered by ambulances for lack of referral, he said.
“It is a human problem… emergency cases should not pass through the referral system,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the OHC serves as a tool to monitor the performance of hospitals and medical staff.
“It is a coordinating monitoring tool, it should not be used to say no to patients,” he said.
“There have been repeated memos issued in relation to that… emergency cases do not need referrals,” Diaz said.
Diaz said he does not believe there is a need to abolish the OHC, but it will depend on the recommendation of the mayors who have their own experiences.*