The young girl who was refused entry to a series of Taipei hospitals after being severely injured by her abusive father will be declared brain-dead today, medical officials said yesterday.
Executive deputy superintendent Tung Jui-lung (
Chiu had been severely beaten by her father before being forced to travel to Taichung for treatment after being turned away at the Municipal Jen Ai Hospital and other Taipei City hospitals.
The resulting uproar triggered an investigation into why Chiu was refused treatment when there were sufficient beds in the hospitals.
The Department of Health declared on Friday that it would make changes to a national system for patient transfers.
The new system is expected to take effect in June.
After discussions with various hospital and emergency surgical experts on Friday, the department decided that it would establish six medical-care sectors.
Within each sector, hospitals will be classified according to a three-point scale based on medical-care capability.
In the new system, patients needing emergency care must be accepted by "grade one" hospitals in the sector and cannot be transferred to hospitals in other sectors.
In the event of a large-scale medical emergency, however, patients will be transferred to hospitals between sectors as needed via the national Emergency Operations Center.
The six sectors will be aligned with the nation's six national health insurance divisions: the Taipei region, including Taipei City, Taipei County and Ilan; the northern region, including greater Hsinchu and Miaoli counties; the central region, including greater Taichung, Changhua and Nantou counties; the southern region, including Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan; a region including Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung; and an eastern region, including Hualien and Taitung counties.
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Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
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