After the darkest one and a half months in its history, Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital was reopened yesterday in a grand ceremony. Taipei Municipal Yangming Hospital, however, was fined and saw its superintendent Wang Tai-lung (
Hoping Hospital resumed part of its normal treatment services yesterday with many of the hospital's regulars finding their way back through its doors. By noon yesterday, about 1,000 patients had registered for treatment. On a normal day, the hospital would receive about 1,600 patients over the course of a morning, said Huang Lien-chi (
"The number of patients so far has gone way beyond our expectations," he said.
"This proves that it is right for Hoping Hospital to remain a community hospital because the community residents need us. Judging from how they have been rushing in, we can see that the the residents here have confidence in us," Huang said.
Dean of the department of internal medicine Dr. Chen Jui-liang (
"I have treated 15 patients this morning, and I am satisfied," Chen said. "As long as we give the right treatment and treat the patients well, they will return."
The city government held a ceremony in front of the hospital yesterday morning to celebrate its return to Taipei's medical network and to commend staff for their performance during the hospital's closure. Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Dr. Chang Yu-tai (
Stalls beside the hospital sold agricultural products at special prices, an attempt by the city government to attract a large crowd to the area.
While Hoping Hospital enjoyed a festive atmosphere, the mood at at Yangming Hospital was much more somber.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday fined the hospital NT$1,500,000 and the Bureau of Health announced its acceptance of Wang's resignation. The superintendent's position was taken over by deputy superintendent Yang Wen-li (
"Yangming Hospital did not properly carry out in-hospital infection controls, fever examination station operation procedures and care worker management. It also delayed reporting possible SARS patients," CDC director Su Ih-jen (
Su said that the hospital's infection control program did not prevent some care workers, who had showed signs of fever on June 1, from crossing from the fever examination station to the emergency department for treatment.
According to Su, the hospital knew on June 3 that a number of care workers, attached to patients in the hospital, were feverish but did not send out their specimens to the CDC until June 4. The CDC received the samples on June 5.
"I am sorry that I was unable to run the hospital properly," Wang said. He expressed regret that care workers were not properly monitored.
"I admire his courage to stand up and take responsibility," The health bureau's Chang said. "I asked him to stay, but his attitude was firm."
"Wang had been working hard to fight against SARS, but this case is like a student who has been studying hard but still fails the exam," Chang said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods