With a hundreds of patients having to be sent to Taiwan proper for treatment — which sometimes puts their lives at risk — Kinmen County residents yesterday urged the government to improve medical facilities in the county.
“We, the people of Kinmen, are paying taxes like others living on Taiwan proper and we are not asking for much,” Democratic Progressive Party Kinmen County Councilor Chen Tsang-chiang (陳滄江) told a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
“We are only humbly asking to enjoy the same amount of medical resources as those living on Taiwan proper,” Chen said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Citing official figures from the Kinmen County Department of Health, Chen said that, on average, more than 300 people in the county had to be regularly sent by military transport aircraft to Taiwan proper for medical treatment in the past three years, while 80 to 100 people were sent to Taiwan proper by helicopter for emergency medical treatment.
Chen said that a man in Kinmen was suffering from a cardiovascular problem which needed an emergency operation which could not be performed in Kinmen. The case was reported at 11pm, but he was not picked up by helicopter until 3:10am and he arrived at a hospital in Taipei after 5am the next morning.
“Another man passed away during the wait for a helicopter,” Chen said.
“This is why there is an urgent need for better medical facilities in Kinmen — and before such facilities are made available, we need helicopters stationed in Kinmen, ready to transfer patients at all times,” he added.
Responding to the complaint, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Nursing and Healthcare Director-General Teng Su-wen (鄧素文) said that the ministry has already targeted the issue and has begun to improve medical facilities in Kinmen.
“We’ve already started building a new annex at the ministry’s Kinmen Hospital, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year,” Teng said. “We will equip the new building with better and newer equipment to provide better service to Kinmen residents.”
In addition, Teng said that the ministry has asked Kinmen students currently attending medical schools in Taiwan proper on full scholarships to return to Kinmen County after completing their studies.
“We understand the problem that Kinmen residents face and we are working to make it better,” Teng said.
Commenting on Chen’s request to have helicopters permanently stationed in Kinmen, Duty Command Center Director of the National Airborne Service Corps Lin Cheng-hsun (林政勳) said it would not be possible.
“We have a total of 25 helicopters, with only 10 of them capable of crossing the Taiwan Strait,” Lin said. “These aircraft are stationed at different locations in Taiwan, so it’s not likely that we would have extra helicopters that could be stationed [permanently] in Kinmen.”
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it