Seminars seek to reduce deadly medical mistakes

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 (徐木泉), director of Taipei's Peicheng Hospital for Women and Children, where a new-born baby died late last year after accidentally being given a muscle relaxant instead of the hepatitis B vaccine.

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 (賴清德) -- who introduced the proposal -- said he hoped that, following the passage of the bill, the government would work diligently to promote cancer prevention and research.