Medical institutions causing serious medical blunders will see the maximum fine raised from NT$150,000 to NT$500,000 and have their operating license revoked or business shut down if draft amendments of the medical treatment law (
The draft, approved by the Executive Yuan yesterday, will proceed to the legislature for further review and final approval.
According to Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), director-general of the Department of Health, the amendments are designed to fortify the management of medical institutions and ensure patients' interests.
"It's necessary to amend the law because several people's health was jeopardized and lives were lost during the two most recent medical blunders that took place in Taipei County and Pingtung County," Twu said.
The mistake in Taipei County occurred last December when seven babies received injections with the wrong medication at the Peicheng Hospital for Women and Children (
According to investigators, the hospital had placed the muscle relaxant Atracurium in the basket for hepatitis B vaccines without any signs noting the difference.
The foul-up in Pingtung County also took place in December last year. Nurses at the Love First Clinic (
The local health department later revoked the license of the clinic and fined the owner NT$150,000 for negligence.
Although the clinic's owner made a public apology, 13 families have filed lawsuits against the clinic.
After the two horrific errors, Premier Yu Shyi-kun asked the two local governments concerned to mete out the harshest punishments possible and requested the health department take the initiative to review medical regulations and make necessary revisions if the punishments stipulated in existing laws are too light.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan yesterday also approved the draft amendments of the National Health Insurance Law (
If approved by the legislature, it is estimated about 130,000 people would benefit from the change. The government, however, would lose an estimated NT$1.1 billion.
Another piece of draft legislation approved yesterday was the statute that governs the construction of urban sidewalks (
The amendments are designed to regulate the height of storefront sidewalks in order to protect the safety of pedestrians and establish a "barrier-free" living environment for handicapped people.
Those unauthorized to construct uneven storefront sidewalks would receive a warning to make improvements. They would face a fine of between NT$5,000 and NT$25,000 if they fail to comply within two months.
The amendments would also regulate other public constructions such as bridges, tunnels, gutters, parking lots and traffic islands or meridians.
The fine for illegal structures is NT$6,000. To make the fines a more effective deterrent, those engaging in the unauthorized construction of a thoroughfare would face a fine of between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000.
Local governments would also be empowered to tear down the sidewalks and other public constructions if the owner, user or keeper refuse to comply.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching