While more is being done to improve the quality of health care women receive, women's rights activists yesterday used the celebration of World Women's Health Day as a moment to reflect on what still needs to be done.
The doctor-patient relationship was the focus of yesterday's Third Taiwan Women's Health Campaign Conference.
Women's rights activists said that one of the major problems women currently face is insensitivity from doctors regarding the special needs of women.
"The first time I went for a Pap smear in a mobile testing facility, there were no female nurses there, only a male intern besides the doctor," one woman at the conference said. "That made me very uncomfortable."
The group will visit the director-general of the Department of Health Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), as well as the main legislative caucuses today to appeal to policymakers to overhaul the medical environment for women and help make it more user-friendly and gender-sensitive.
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that health is a basic human right and has highlighted women's health for years, Taiwan is still lagging behind in many areas, activists said.
"The concerns of doctors and women have been unfocused," said Huang Sue-ying (
"The doctors always complain that the medical system itself is the main cause of the problem, but women are concerned about the individual quality of medical care they receive," Huang said, referring to the poor doctor-patient relationships that exist in Taiwan.
Huang said many women complain that doctors do not spend enough time in diagnosis and treatment, and that doctors do not adequately explain the nature of a patient's health complaint.
Lack of information and the indifference shown by doctors sometimes results in patients taking the wrong kinds of medicines or taking the incorrect dosages, she said.
"Women have become the victims," said Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青), committee member of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights (TAPWR,
Hsu said 30 percent of pregnant women between the age of 20 and 45 give birth by Caesarian section -- the highest rate in the world, activists said.
The high rate is a sign that something is wrong with medical advice in Taiwan, they said.
Privacy is another main concern for women.
"Woman patients expect doctors to be more friendly and respectful of their privacy," Huang said.
According to a survey conducted by TAPWR, 60 percent of women wanted to see examination rooms separated from the area for basic checkups.
Activists said that many of the policies used in hospitals around the island have been formulated by men without properly considering the impact it could have on women patients.
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