Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) yesterday proposed that those who attend medical school in a foreign country be required to do an internship at a Taiwanese hospital, pass national exams and pass a separate verification of their foreign degrees before practicing in Taiwan.
Yeh said the department wanted to amend Article 4 of the Physician’s Act (醫師法) to introduce the requirements.
“As long as you can pass this screening mechanism in Taiwan, you can practice as a certified physician no matter where you graduated,” Yeh said.
The minister made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday morning.
Whether students who studied medicine in Poland should be allowed to practice medicine in Taiwan has been a matter of debate and remained a key issue yesterday.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) said the screening requirements should apply to all medical school students rather than only those who had obtained medical degrees abroad.
“It should be a fair game and I believe this [screening] shouldn’t be a problem for those who graduate from local medical schools,” Yang said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator David Huang (黃偉哲) agreed, saying he supported the requirements.
“This mechanism would help anchor job opportunities for those who graduate from local medical schools,” Huang said.
KMT Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) said the government was being unfair to those studying medicine in Poland.
The Ministry of Education had promised those students their degrees would be recognized now that Poland is a member of the EU, Hsu said.
If the department had doubts about the quality of Polish medical schools, it should have warned these students earlier, she said.
“I think it is not fair for these students studying in Poland,” Hsu said.
In response to lawmakers’ comments, Yeh said the department would ensure that its requirements were fair.
He said an increasing number of medical students would likely choose Polish universities because compared with other options abroad, the entry requirements were easier.
The department will welcome those students to practice in Taiwan once they have met requirements, he said, adding that the same applied to those who graduated from medical schools in other countries.
“The only controversial part of the matter will be ... whether the exams are too difficult,” Yeh said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
CASE: Prosecutors have requested heavy sentences, citing a lack of remorse and the defendants’ role in ‘undermining the country’s democratic foundations’ Five people affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), including senior staff from the party’s Taipei branch, were indicted yesterday for allegedly forging thousands of signatures to recall two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. Those indicted include KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Chin-ru (黃呂錦茹), secretary-general Chu Wen-ching (初文卿) and secretary Yao Fu-wen (姚富文), the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said in a news release. Prosecutors said the three were responsible for fabricating 5,211 signature forms — 2,537 related to the recall of DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) and 2,674 for DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) — with forged entries accounting for
RSS