“Both local and central governments have devoted a lot of energy to addressing the problems, but there’s still a long way to go to satisfy the medical needs of the islanders,” Lu said.
Lu does not begrudge those medical personnel who leave the islands for better opportunities, but he feels the government could do more to solve the issues.
For one thing, he said, it could offer young doctors trained under the medical education program for islanders more incentives to stay beyond the mandatory service period, including offering more opportunities to pursue advanced training and study.
Another step could be to increase the frequency of visits by specialists from major supporting hospitals to the remote islands, Lu said.
Lu’s office, for example, is looking into the feasibility of arranging for dentists to visit Lanyu every weekend. At present, a dentist from a teaching hospital in Taitung County visits the island only on the first and third weekend of every month.
The high turnover rate also extends to nurses.
Chang Ming-lung (張明龍), director of the Lanyu health station, who himself is a government-sponsored doctor and will leave his post once his service requirement is fulfilled, said only two of the eight nurses at his station have worked there for more than five years.
In many cases, he said, nurses are reassigned just as they are becoming familiar with their work and living environment.
“This frequent reassignment of nurses is yet another obstacle to upgrading service quality,” he said.
The paucity of medical resources also adds to the pressures faced by nurses working on the islands, and some have complained about having to provide emergency services without adequate equipment.
“We have to take oxygen equipment with us and perform CPR from time to time. The work is very stressful,” said one Lanyu nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Liouciou is the only small outlying island that has a marine ambulance, but even that will soon have to be taken out of service and the township office is lobbying the central government to provide NT$30 million (US$909,090) for a new one.
The Department of Health (DOH), however, is considering hiring a private helicopter company to offer emergency transport services at a cost of about NT$1 million per month.
That option is less than appealing to local residents, who have grown attached to the lifeline provided by the vessel’s 20 trips to Taiwan proper per month.
Their reservations were heightened last week when a helicopter owned by a private company that was returning to Kinmen after delivering a patient to Taipei for emergency treatment crashed into the sea, killing two.
The issue has yet to be resolved.
RSS