PhilHealth urged to issue guidelines on coverage of patients in hospital tents

Gabriela party-list Representative Arlene Brosas urged PhilHealth to release a new set of guidelines to cover patients who are staying in tents while waiting to be admitted in hospitals amid the pandemic.

"PhilHealth must stop frantically fanning the flames of public outrage with mere empty words. The Filipino people deserves more than that," Brosas said in a press statement issued Wednesday.

"They should release a new set of guidelines for the implementation of COVID-19 benefits and include patients who were forced to stay in non-accredited community isolation unit tents," she added.

The lawmaker's call came after Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Ferdinand Gaite's revelation that some COVID-19 patients, who were staying in temporary tents at hospitals, were charged P1,000 per hour.

During a congressional meeting last week, PhilHealth Acting Senior Vice President Neri Santiago said the coverage for patients in tents was not included in the agency's policy or package.

Brosas said this "nightmarish public health system" is due to President Rodrigo Duterte's underfunding of projects and twisted priorities.

"If only President Duterte prioritized building COVID-19 hospitals instead of non-essential infrastructure projects in the national budget, patients wouldn't have to suffer and die in tents," she said.—LDF, GMA News