Following a series of deadly mistakes at hospitals and clinics, the Department of Health yesterday held the first of four seminars for hospital superintendants to try to reduce the number of accidents.
All the nation's 600 superintendants were asked to attend at least one of the seminars, entitled "Pushing for a patient-oriented environment for safe medical practices," the first of which was held at Taipei Veterans General Hospital yesterday.
Among them was Hsu Mu-chan
The aim of the seminars is to promote an understanding of the rights and obligations of medical practitioners, streamlining and management skills.
But one superintendent of a major local hospital who spoke at the seminar complained that superintendents were too busy to attend seminars.
"It's getting more and more difficult to serve as a superintendent," he said.
Meanwhile, Department of Health Director-General Twu Shing-jer (涂醒哲) also said yesterday that his department would seek to set up a national cancer prevention and research center to raise the recovery rate from the disease.
Twu, who was promoted to his position on New Year's Day, made the remarks while fielding questions from lawmakers during a screening session for a draft bill on cancer prevention at the Health, Environmental and Social Welfare Committee in the Legislative Yuan.
Once the bill clears the legislature, the department will direct the National Health Research Institute (NHRI) to set up the cancer prevention and research center and will offer subsidies to hospitals and medical institutions to establish similar centers, Twu said.
DPP Legislator Lai Ching-teh
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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