The long-awaited National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital, an establishment that has taken more than 10 years and cost more than NT$4 billion (US$125 million) to build, was finally inaugurated yesterday.
The opening was attended by a number of government officials and special guests, including Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄), National Taiwan University (NTU) president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔), NTU Hospital superintendent Chen Ming-feng (陳明豐) and Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川).
In his speech at the opening ceremony, Siew pointed out that the current mortality rate of infants and children in Taiwan is 5.5 percent, lower than the 6.7 percent of previous years.
“Taiwan has come a long way in lowering the number of deaths of infants and children,” he said.
The establishment of the children’s hospital shows that the government is gradually realizing its promise to enhance the medical facilities dedicated to children, he said.
Yeh congratulated the hospital, but added that the hospital faced many issues, one of them being how to keep the hospital in good financial condition.
Considering that administrative costs would be as high as NT$60 million a year, the hospital would have to exert a lot of effort on managing its finances, he said.
The building is located next to the hospital on Zhongshan S Road. The hospital has a total floor space of 22,346 ping (73,741m³), with 22 stories above ground level and four stories in the basement. It has 287 regular beds, 173 specially designed beds and 11 operating rooms.
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