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Definition:
Cases:
MANILA DOCTORS HOSPITAL, petitioner, vs. SO UN CHUA
and VICKY TY, respondents.
G.R. No. 150355 | July 31, 2006 (1D)
Facts:
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
Petitioners
anchor
respondent
De
Castros
termination of employment on the ground of serious
misconduct for failure to personally attend to patient
Causaren who fell from the bed as she was trying to
reach for the bedpan.
Petitioners
anchor
respondent
De
Castros
termination of employment on the ground of serious
misconduct for failure to personally attend to patient
Causaren who fell from the bed as she was trying to
reach for the bedpan.
o
Despite our finding of culpability against
respondent De Castro; however, we do not
see any wrongful intent, deliberate refusal,
or bad faith on her part when, instead of
personally attending to patient Causaren,
she requested Nursing Assistant Tatad and
ward-clerk orientee Guillergan to see the
patient, as she was then attending to a
newly-admitted patient at Room 710.
o
Being her first offense, respondent De
Castro cannot be said to be grossly
negligent so as to justify her termination of
employment.
Moreover,
petitioners
allegation, that respondent De Castro
exerted undue pressure upon her co-nurses
to alter the actual time of the incident so as
to exculpate her from any liability, was not
clearly substantiated.
Negligence is defined as the failure to exercise the
standard of care that a reasonably prudent person
would have exercised in a similar situation.
o
The Court emphasizes that the nature of
the business of a hospital requires a
higher degree of caution and exacting
standard
of
diligence
in
patient
management and health care as what
is involved are lives of patients who
seek urgent medical assistance. An act
or omission that falls short of the
required degree of care and diligence
amounts to serious misconduct which
constitutes a sufficient ground for
dismissal.
However, in some cases, the Court had ruled that
sanctioning an erring employee with suspension
would suffice as the extreme penalty of dismissal
would be too harsh.
o
Considering that this was the first offense of
respondent De Castro in her nine (9) years
of employment with petitioner hospital as a
staff nurse without any previous derogatory
record and, further, as her lapse was not
characterized by any wrongful motive or
deceitful conduct.
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
establishment
of
minimum
medical
educational
requirements-i.e.,
the
completion
of
prescribed
courses in a recognized medical school-for admission
to the medical profession, has also been sustained as a
legitimate exercise of the regulatory authority of the
state. What we have before us in the instant case is closely
related: the regulation of access to medical schools. MECS
Order No. 52, s. 1985, articulates the rationale of regulation of
this type: the improvement of the professional and technical
quality of the graduates of medical schools, by upgrading the
quality of those admitted to the student body of the medical
schools. That upgrading is sought by selectivity in the
process of admission, selectivity consisting, among
other things, of limiting admission to those who exhibit
in the required degree the aptitude for medical studies
and eventually for medical practice. The need to
maintain, and the difficulties of maintaining, high standards in
our professional schools in general, and medical schools in
particular, in the current state of our social and economic
development, are widely known.
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
Held: No
Respondents counter that having passed the 1993 licensure
examinations for physicians, the petitioners have the
obligation to administer to them the oath as physicians and to
issue their certificates of registration as physicians pursuant
to Section 20 of Rep. Act No. 2382.
The intent or meaning of the statute should be ascertained
from the statute taken as a whole, not from an isolated part of
the provision. Accordingly, Section 20, of Rep. Act No. 2382,
as amended should be read in conjunction with the other
provisions of the Act. Thus, to determine whether the
petitioners had the ministerial obligation to administer the
Hippocratic Oath to respondents and register them as
physicians, recourse must be had to the entirety of the
Medical Act of 1959.
A careful reading of Section 20 of the Medical Act of 1959
discloses that the law uses the word "shall" with respect to
the issuance of certificates of registration. Thus, the
petitioners "shall sign and issue certificates of registration to
those who have satisfactorily complied with the requirements
of the Board." In statutory construction the term "shall" is a
word of command. It is given imperative meaning. Thus, when
an examinee satisfies the requirements for the grant of his
physicians license, the Board is obliged to administer to him
his oath and register him as a physician, pursuant to Section
20 and par. (1) of Section 2225 of the Medical Act of 1959.
However, the surrounding circumstances in this case call for
serious inquiry concerning the satisfactory compliance with
the Board requirements by the respondents. The unusually
high scores in the two most difficult subjects was
phenomenal, according to Fr. Nebres, the consultant of PRC on
the matter, and raised grave doubts about the integrity, if not
validity, of the tests. These doubts have to be appropriately
resolved.
The function of mandamus is not to establish a right but to
enforce one that has been established by law. If no legal right
has been violated, there can be no application of a legal
remedy, and the writ of mandamus is a legal remedy for a
legal right. There must be a well-defined, clear and certain
legal right to the thing demanded. It is long established rule
that a license to practice medicine is a privilege or franchise
granted by the government.
It is true that this Court has upheld the constitutional right of
every citizen to select a profession or course of study subject
to a fair, reasonable, and equitable admission and academic
requirements. But like all rights and freedoms guaranteed by
the Charter, their exercise may be so regulated pursuant to
the police power of the State to safeguard health, morals,
peace, education, order, safety, and general welfare of the
people. Thus, persons who desire to engage in the
learned professions requiring scientific or technical
knowledge may be required to take an examination as
a prerequisite to engaging in their chosen careers. This
regulation takes particular pertinence in the field of
medicine, to protect the public from the potentially
deadly effects of incompetence and ignorance among
those who would practice medicine. In a previous case, it
may be recalled, this Court has ordered the Board of Medical
Examiners to annul both its resolution and certificate
authorizing a Spanish subject, with the degree of Licentiate in
Medicine and Surgery from the University of Barcelona, Spain,
to practice medicine in the Philippines, without first passing
the examination required by the Philippine Medical Act. In
another case worth noting, we upheld the power of the State
to upgrade the selection of applicants into medical schools
through admission tests.
In the present case, the aforementioned guidelines are
provided for in Rep. Act No. 2382, as amended, which
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
CHAVEZ,
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
Held: Yes
The evidence is sufficient to support a finding, beyond a
reasonable doubt, that a live child was actually born here, and
that it died because of the negligence of the appellant in
failing to use reasonable care in protecting its life, having the
duty to do so. This baby was completely removed from its
mother and even the placenta was removed. A factual
question was presented and the opinion of the autopsy
physician was evidence which could be considered by the jury.
His opinion was that the baby was born alive and that
it breathed and had heart action. He gave good
reasons for that opinion and while he admitted that
there could be a possible doubt his evidence justifies
the inference that there was no valid ground for a
reasonable doubt. While he admitted that he had not
used certain tests suggested by the other doctor he
stated that he knew of these tests but he did not
consider them necessary here. With respect to the test
most relied upon by the defense, it was stated by both
doctors that this test would show only what the autopsy
physician testified he had discovered by other means. The
doctor called by the defense had not seen the baby's body
and his testimony was based upon his general laboratory
experience. While it may be said that there was some conflict
between the testimony of these two doctors no more than a
conflict appears. The question was one of fact for the jury and,
in our opinion, the evidence is sufficient to support its
findings. If it could be said that there might be a possible
doubt with respect to this phase of the case, it cannot be said
that there was necessarily a reasonable doubt. The finding of
the jury is sufficiently supported, and the implied finding that
this was a human being rests on a factual basis and not upon
speculation.
SPECIAL LAWS APPLICABLE TO PHYSICIANS II
DR. FILOTEO A. ALANO, Petitioner, vs. ZENAIDA MAGUDLOGMAO, Respondent.
G.R. No. 175540 | April 7, 2014 (3D)
Facts:
Held: Yes
Presidential Decree No. 651, otherwise known as An Act
Requiring the Registration of Births and Deaths in the
Philippines which Occurred from 1 January 1974 and
Thereafter, provides:
Sec. 1. Registration of births. All babies born in hospitals,
maternity clinics, private homes, or elsewhere within the
period starting from January 1, 1974 up to the date when this
decree becomes effective, irrespective of the nationality,
race, culture, religion or belief of their parents, whether the
mother is a permanent resident or transient in the Philippines,
and whose births have not yet been registered must be
reported for registration in the office of the local civil registrar
of the place of birth by the physician, nurse, midwife, hilot, or
hospital or clinic administrator who attended the birth or in
default thereof, by either parent or a responsible member of
the family or a relative, or any person who has knowledge of
the birth of the individual child.
The report referred to above shall be accompanied with an
affidavit describing the circumstances surrounding the
delayed registration. (Emphasis supplied)
Sec. 2. Period of registration of births. The registration of the
birth of babies referred to in the preceding section must be
done within sixty (60) days from the date of effectivity of this
decree without fine or fee of any kind. Babies born after the
effectivity of this decree must be registered in the office of
the local civil registrar of the place of birth within thirty (30)
days after birth, by the attending physician, nurse, midwife,
hilot or hospitals or clinic administrator or, in default of the
same, by either parent or a responsible member of the family
or any person who has knowledge of the birth.
The parents or the responsible member of the family and the
attendant at birth or the hospital or clinic administrator
referred to above shall be jointly liable in case they fail to
register the new born child. If there was no attendant at birth,
or if the child was not born in a hospital or maternity clinic,
then the parents or the responsible member of the family
alone shall be primarily liable in case of failure to register the
new born child. (Emphasis supplied)
Presidential Decree No. 76612 amended P.D. No. 651
by extending the period of registration up to 31
December 1975. P.D. No. 651, as amended, provided
for special registration within a specified period to
address the problem of under-registration of births as
well as deaths. It allowed, without fine or fee of any kind,
the late registration of births and deaths occurring within the
period starting from 1 January 1974 up to the date when the
decree became effective.
Since Reynaldo was born on 30 October 1948, the late
registration of his birth is outside of the coverage of P.D. No.
651, as amended. The late registration of Reynaldos birth
falls under Act No. 3753, otherwise known as the Civil
Registry Law, which took effect on 27 February 1931. As a
general law, Act No. 3753 applies to the registration of
all births, not otherwise covered by P.D. No. 651, as
amended, occurring from 27 February 1931 onwards.
Considering that the late registration of Reynaldos birth took
place in 1985, National Census Statistics Office (NCSO)
Administrative Order No. 1, Series of 1983 governs the
implementation of Act No. 3753 in this case.
Under NCSO A.O. No. 1-83, the birth of a child shall be
registered in the office of the local civil registrar within
30 days from the time of birth. Any report of birth
made beyond the reglementary period is considered
delayed. The local civil registrar, upon receiving an
application for delayed registration of birth, is required
to publicly post for at least ten days a notice of the
10
vs.
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
11
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
12
Case Digest and Related Provisions on Legal Medicine based on Atty. Rodel
Capules Syllabus
Rivad, Sherine L. | 1st Sem AY 2015 2016 | Arellano University School of Law
13