A draft amendment to the Medical Care Act (醫療法) that would make medical personnel liable to face criminal punishment in legal disputes only if they are found to have acted “deliberately” or “violated their duty of care” would protect medical personnel while jeopardizing compensation for victims, legislators and civic groups said yesterday.
An increasing number of lawsuits concerning medical malpractice and other medical disputes have caused shortages of doctors. This led the Executive Yuan to approve an amendment proposed by the Department of Health last week to rationalize the possible penalties medical personnel face when involved in medical disputes.
However, Democratic Progressive Party legislators Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) and Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), joined by members of civic groups, said they were disappointed with the draft amendment’s emphasis on medical personnel’s rights and urged legislators to protect the rights of patients when they review the Cabinet’s amendment.
Huang Shu-ying (黃淑英), the chairperson of civic group Taiwan Women’s Link, said that what patients really want in a medical dispute are three things:
“The first is an apology, the second is the truth and the last is monetary compensation,” Huang said.
Although the Cabinet has also proposed a draft act on compensation in medical disputes and medical malpractice as a joint measure to protect patients’ rights, the groups said details of the compensation mechanism such as when it would be given are not outlined in the draft act, so they fear it could become a “blank check.”
Eva Teng (滕西華), a spokeswoman for the National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance, said: “In a situation of asymmetric information, where knowledge and economic status are seriously imbalanced, the patients often end up as the loser if they are forced to enter a negotiation mechanism.”
They asked the government to review the draft act again and bring the patients’ rights into consideration by adding articles such as demanding that the government provide assistance to patients in medical disputes.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS