The Persons with Disability Affairs Office (PDAO) clarified that the local government does not require individuals seeking assistance for referral to health experts to prepare certain amounts for the so-called professional fees of physicians that they will be consulting.
PDAO head Dr. Samuel G. Aquino issued the statement following reports reaching his office that there are some employees of certain offices who are requiring relatives and family members of PWDs to prepare P2,800 as professional fee of physicians whom they refer for consultations with their status.
“We simply refer individuals who need the appropriate advice to our partner health experts in government hospitals, particularly the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, for consultations. We have no business talking about their professional fees because we do not even know their respective fees aside from the fact that said individuals are referred to a government hospital” Aquino stressed.
He pointed out that the reason individuals are being referred to health experts is for them to be diagnosed for down syndrome or rare disease to support the issuance of their respective PWD identification cards considering that an expert opinion is required on the said matter.
The PDAO head asserted that no personnel in the local government want to interfere in the professional fees being charged by health experts from those seeking consultations from them because they have no business to be meddling with such transactions between the patients and their chosen physicians.
Aquino said that the PDAO, in coordination with the employees of other local government offices who were dragged in the said issue, will be conducting an investigation to ascertain the identities of those who had been spreading the malicious information to compel them to rectify the falsehoods that they had been spreading so as not to taint a bad image of their offices from the perception of their clients.
He advised concerned individuals to refrain from coming up with unnecessary remarks that might be taken out of context to avoid misinformation that will have a negative impact on the harmonious working relationship among the involved agencies and the local government. – Baguio City Public Information Office
