Thu, Sep 08, 2011 page8

• Making a profession out of gross negligence

  • By Ted Chang 陳峻綱
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  Recent incidents that should never have occurred among healthcare and security workers have exposed consistent negligence and incompetence on the part of the supposed professionals who have been trained to serve and protect the public in various ways.

  In July, a Chinese tourist somehow managed to reach past President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) security detail, assigned by the National Security Bureau, at the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei and place her hand around his neck to embrace him. Then, on Aug. 23 at a Fo Guang Shan Monastery event in Greater Kaohsiung, an unauthorized person appeared onstage behind Ma before he was removed by security personnel. Security staff once again exhibited inadequacies when at an event in Greater Taichung a woman somehow managed to rush onto a stage to protest a medical dispute ruling, grabbing Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) arm before being asked to leave.

  In less than two months, there were three reported security breaches that compromised the safety of either the president or the opposition’s presidential candidate. This does not even include previous incidents in which Chinese tourists have entered Taiwanese military bases and facilities without undergoing security checks.

  Thankfully, nothing happened to Ma or Tsai and their safety remains intact despite the apparent neglect of those assigned to protect them. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the five transplant recipients who were given organs from an HIV-positive donor last month after National Taiwan University Hospital staff failed horrendously to follow standard medical protocol.

  One should never expect to hear of a complete lack of oversight or lack of due deligence — or of an act of negligence that is way beyond comprehension — at any healthcare facility.

  Procedures in these areas, involving people’s lives and safety, are developed for a reason: to avoid potentially catastrophic fiascoes. If these professionals cannot be bothered to follow them, what is the point of developing them in the first place?

  Alas, a revamp of the system does not seem likely any time soon. This type of negligence is practically encouraged by the government given the paltry fines the responsible hospitals, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Cheng Kung University Hospital, incurred. These incidents display a system that lacks much-needed accountability.

  Add to this a Chinese--language Apple Daily report last month about four doctors at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital who scrambled for protective masks during an emergency situation while they allowed a pregnant anesthesiologist to be exposed to the patient’s blood before informing her that the patient had HIV. If this story is true, the doctors’ display of cowardice is more evidence of a potential crisis in which the nation’s healthcare workers are shirking their duties and responsibilities.

  Imagine the repercussions had Ma or Tsai been harmed as a result of their security staff’s mental vacations. Couple that scenario with the organ transplant snafus at one of the nation’s top hospitals, and other countries might start wondering whether Taiwan is capable of properly tending to matters of importance.

  For a country as isolated as Taiwan, whose unenviable reputation around the globe for fistfights in the legislature is legendary, the negligence and incompetence of those professionals in the security and healthcare sectors risk reducing Taiwan to a perennial laughing stock.

  Talk about losing face.

  Ted Chang is a copy editor at the Taipei Times.
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