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{
    "id": 998682,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/998682/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 31,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to support this Statement. One of the fundamental rights articulated in the Constitution is the right to health. However, specifically, in an emergency situation, a patient has a right to treatment regardless of ability to pay. If a situation is likely to cause death, serious injury or disability if not attended to promptly, it is an emergency and the hospital has to deal with it. They do not have a discretion. Both public and private hospitals have a duty to administer medical care to a person experiencing an emergency. Therefore, this message should go out loud and clear to all public and private hospitals, that once you are in the profession or business of offering medical care and the Government has given you a license, permission or authority to carry such a service - a service which you are not doing free of charge, but where you are doing business - the right to attend emergencies is a duty that obliges all hospitals and medical institutions. Mr. Speaker, Sir, while the Committee will look at this matter, they must come out clearly to tell us if there is something in the law that is not clear enough, we should then make the law more specific with sufficient clarity. Many people who are in emergency situations in this country die because they cannot pay the kind of money required by our hospitals. I have had a number of experiences on this personally. You take people to hospitals at 4.00 a.m. to 5.00 a.m. or midnight, and may be having money in the bank and since they want cash or a guarantee at that time, it is not easy to make financial transactions. I hope that this Statement will not only deal with this specific case, but also deal with how hospitals are treating emergencies in the way their profession should be doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir."
}