Control Yuan members proposed corrective measures against the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday, saying its dereliction of duty had contributed to the SARS epidemic in April and May.
"The DOH shoulders responsibility for the rampant spread of SARS. The department's failure to alert hospitals nationwide of the epidemic threat and prevention in advance was the major cause of the SARS outbreak hitting Taiwan in April and May," the Control Yuan investigation concluded.
Control Yuan investigators argued that the department failed to carry out regular inspections of hospitals for maintenance of epidemic isolation rooms.
The DOH also failed to fulfill its legal responsibility to collect information on hospitals' isolation rooms, according to the investigators, who also said this neglect slowed the department's response to the outbreak.
The health authorities were unable to supervise hospital isolation rooms' admission of SARS patients, the investigation found.
Investigators said the DOH was incapable of supervising local hospitals epidemic treatment, the emergency referral system and the response mechanism to stem the spread of the epidemic.
"The second fault of the DOH was that its loose surveillance of hospitals led to chaos among hospital staff when they were mired in the challenge of combating the pneumonia-like disease in April," the investigation paper said.
Control Yuan members also said the department failed to properly train hospitals and their personnel on how to provide aid to neighboring hospitals.
The DOH's dereliction led to disarray in the deployment of nursing and other medical personnel to hospitals during the outbreak, the investigators said.
"The DOH neglected the action until the infection situation in the Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital became out of control in the end of April," Control Yuan members said.
The correction was proposed by a panel at the Control Yuan comprising Chao Chang-ping (趙昌平), Chang Teh-ming (張德銘), Liao Jiann-nan (廖健男) and Lee Shen-yi (李伸一). They were also the investigators for an impeachment case over administrative malfeasance by officials, including the former director of the Taipei City Bureau of Health, Chiu Shu-ti (邱淑媞).
The investigation concluded that Chiu and two others -- the then superintendent of Hoping Hospital Wu Kang-wen (吳康文) and former director of the hospital's communicable disease unit Lin Jong-ti (林榮第) -- should be impeached.
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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