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Getting back to normal: Sen. Nancy Binay asks National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) Exec. Dir. Rose Marie Liquete if she expects the operation of the institution to normalize next year, wherein it will not be accepting Covid-19 patients and return to its regular operation as a specialized hospital. “I guess this is something that we can ask the Department of Health (DOH) that at some point, as we live with Covid, the Philippine Heart Center and NKTI should go back to their primary purpose,” Binay said during the virtual hearing of the Finance Subcommittee D on the proposed 2022 budget of the DOH and its attached agencies Wednesday, October 13, 2021. Liquete told the committee that normalization has always been their target however, the NKTI also has Covid-19 patients with comorbidities including kidney disease, which is why they cannot let them go. But she added that NKTI already started accepting transplant patients in March. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)