By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Department of Health (DOH) ordered all government hospital chiefs to make doctors and support staff available 24 hours a day.
Dr. Herminigildo Valle, undersecretary of health for the Office for Field Implementation Management, in a memorandum, ordered medical personnel be made available, particularly, “in local and government hospitals that either do not have or are merely being visited by medical professionals.”
The memorandum is in reaction to a letter-complaint from Nancy Pajarillo of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, referred by the Task Force Crusaders (TFC) through its national deputy commander John Chiong.
Pajarillo asked TFC to help her in seeking justice for the death of her daughter, citing alleged negligence by medical personnel of the Lorenzo D. Zayco District Hospital.
The mother claimed her child was not given proper attention and, with no pediatrician on hand at the time, her daughter’s illness further complicated.
Based on the death certificate, the child died from pediatric community acquired pneumonia and acute gastroenteritis with severe dehydration.
Valle, in a separate memorandum, also referred Pajarillo’s complaint to Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire, officer in charge of the Health Facilities and Services Regulatory Bureau of the DOH./WDJ