In view of the shortage of obstetricians, a stratified, but complementary maternal care system with midwives playing a crucial role could solve the predicament, said Chou Ming-ming (周明明), director of obstetrics and gynecology at Taichung Veterans’ General Hospital.
“Who will deliver Taiwanese babies?” Chou asked during a presentation at the celebration of the establishment of the Taiwan Maternal Fetal Medicine Society on Sunday, saying that the number of practicing obstetricians and gynecologists had grown at an average of 16 percent over the past 10 years, compared with 30 percent for surgery, 45 percent for internal medicine and 54 percent for pediatrics.
“The average age of practicing gynecologists and obstetricians is 54.7, higher than those in other areas of medicine,” Chou said, adding that as new workforce merely trickles in and the “old soldiers gradually fade away,” a manpower shortage is imminent.
Other causes of the manpower attrition are the increase in disputes and malpractice litigation, how the National Health Insurance (NHI) pays gynecologists and obstetricians, how it pays obstetricians handling high-risk cases, unpredictable working hours and high emotional stakes, Chou said.
Chou applauded a plan by the government to aid, after a consensus between the patient and the hospital has been reached, those suffering from delivery mishaps, and recommended institutionalizing the resolution and mediation of such disputes.
Adjusting NHI payments to obstetricians and maternal-fetal medicine specialists and providing greater economic incentives to recruit doctors into the field requires further action, Chou said.
Chou also said Taiwan should follow the UK’s lead on midwifery, saying that certified midwives can mitigate the overwork that obstetricians face.
“Their presence is a plus to the pregnant woman, her family and obstetricians, who should work in partnership with midwives, rather than regarding them as competitors,” Chou said.
“There is a clear division of labor between midwives and obstetricians in the UK, with obstetricians in charge of only those experiencing high-risk pregnancies. Midwives deliver between 40 and 68 percent of babies born in the UK every year,” Chou said.
There are more than 50,000 certified midwives in Taiwan, but less than 130 are practicing, according to Chou’s data.
There is still a lot more work to be done for a better mother-friendly childbirth system, Chou said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching