A government injection of NT$4.7 billion (US$158 million) to improve hospital services and increase nurses’ welfare and salaries from 2009 through this year has had a very limited impact and might have boosted hospitals’ profits instead, the Consumers’ Foundation said yesterday.
Chairperson Joann Su (蘇錦霞) said the foundation had interviewed several nurses and heard about their “unreasonable” working conditions, such as difficulty taking leave, staff shortages, frequent shift changes and disorderly work schedules.
Su said the Department of Health had earmarked about NT$830 million in 2009, NT$830 million in 2010, NT$1 billion last year and NT$2 billion this year exclusively for improving the quality of nursing care, promoting nurses’ welfare and employing more nursing personnel.
In addition to the earmarked funding, the total budget provided by the Bureau of National Health Insurance to hospitals increased by NT$14.6 billion in 2009, NT$11.4 billion in 2010, NT$11.6 billion last year and NT$16.1 billion this year, for a total increase of NT$53.7 billion in four years, said National Health Insurance Medical Expenditure Negotiation Committee representative Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁), a former chairman of the foundation.
However, figures provided by the department showed that the average monthly increase in nursing personnel last year was 1.92 percent, or a total of 1,709 new nurses, foundation secretary-general Chen Chih-yi (陳智義) said.
Based on last year’s funding of NT$1 billion, divided by the 1,709 new nurses, the nurses should have had an average monthly salary of at least NT$49,000, which is slightly higher than the average salary for nurses, Chen said.
However, the large increase in the hospitals’ budgets did not go toward improving the quality of care or nurses’ welfare, he said.
“Consumers pay more and more money to improve the quality of care and nurses’ welfare, but the actual improvements are very limited,” Hsieh said, adding that nurses and medical personnel continue to be exploited by hospitals.
Data from the National Union of Nurses’ Associations shows that the earmarked funds had no impact on nurses’ working conditions, Su said.
Nurses on the day shift had to take care of between eight and 13 patients at the same time, 10 to 20 patients during night shifts and 20 to 30 on late night shifts, Su said.
The extremely heavy workload has led to nurses quitting and people receiving poor healthcare, Hsieh said.
About 7 percent of nursing positions are currently vacant, which means about 7,000 new nurses are needed in Taiwan, he said.
“It’s not a problem that can be solved by continuously increasing the budgets for hospitals, because the problem lies with hospitals making more profits by exploiting medical workers,” he said.
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
RSS