Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced yesterday that acting head of the Department of Health (DOH) Twu Shiing-jer (
Nearly four months after Twu became the acting head of the DOH, Yu told reporters in a press conference that Twu's performance had been lauded by many senior medical officials.
"Before making the decision, I asked many medical professionals about Twu's performance. They all praised his work," Yu said.
"But I must stress that for Twu, becoming the head of the DOH means he will have to take on more responsibility," the premier said.
Twu told reporters at the Executive Yuan yesterday, "I couldn't say `no.'"
"The premier summoned me at 8am today to inform me of his decision. Now I am considering who would be best qualified to assume the post of DOH deputy director-general," Twu said.
Twu, a graduate of National Taiwan University's School of Medicine, obtained his doctorate in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1991.
He became commissioner of Taipei City's Department of Health in 1996 when President Chen Shui-bian (
In 2000, he assumed the position of director-general of the Center for Disease Control and became deputy director-general of the DOH earlier this year.
Twu was appointed as the acting head of the department on Sept. 1 after former health chief Lee Ming-liang (
Although Twu received three promotions within just a year, his political life, particularly after he became the DOH's acting head, has not been so smooth.
He had to deal with massive protests against the hike in national health insurance premiums when he took over the post as acting head of the department.
A month later, Twu found himself beset by a sex scandal alleging he forcibly licked another man's ear in a karaoke parlor.
From late last month to early this month, he was again beleaguered by a series of medical blunders that resulted in two babies' deaths and injuries to dozens of children.
Local Chinese-language news-papers yesterday described Twu's political life since he became acting head of the DOH as "bumpy" and as one that requires constant vigilance and alertness.
"What I have experienced over the past four months is something that you would expect to see only once in a hundred years," Twu told reporters.
"I never expected I would encounter so many challenges," he added.
On the medical blunders, Twu said that errors happen all the time.
"It might be a good thing that those medical tragedies did take place. They gave us a good opportunity to think about how to find the solutions," Twu said.
At an interpellation session in the legislature on Oct. 15, KMT Legislator Tsai Cheng-yuan (
"Could it be you are considering appointing Lee Ying-yuan (
Lee, the DPP's Taipei mayoral candidate in the Dec. 7 election, is a former Cabinet secretary-general.
Yu said there was no grounds for such speculation as all DOH chiefs must have a background in medicine.
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