Even with medical center copayment fees set to rise next month and the National Health Insurance Administration’s (NHIA) online patient referral system beginning operations today, many people still believe that only treatment at medical centers and by renowned doctors can ensure quality care.
This belief has led to long lines for outpatient clinic appointments, with lines at appointment registration counters sometimes forming overnight, and even a profitable sideline in “queuing services,” where people charge anywhere from several hundred New Taiwan dollars to thousands of NT dollars to stand in line and make an appointment with prominent doctors for another person.
While long lines are common at National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported the most difficult doctor to get an appointment with is Lyu Shaw-ruey (呂紹睿), an orthopedist at Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital in Chiayi County.
Lyu has become famous because many people believe he does not rush to recommend knee replacements, but prescribes other treatments or arthroscopic surgery first, the paper said, adding that his outpatient service is fully booked until August.
A person who takes commissions for helping people make appointments with famous doctors said sometimes it takes 20 people making telephones calls at the same time to actually ensure one appointment, and people who get an appointment with Lyu’s outpatient service usually have to wait at least six months to see him, while the waiting time for him to perform surgery can be one to two years.
NHIA Deputy Director-General Tsai Shu-ling (蔡淑鈴) has been urging people to drop the idea that renowned doctors are best and not to seek appointments at medical centers unless they are seriously ill.
Starting on April 15, people who directly seek treatment at medical centers without a referral from a clinic or smaller hospital will have to pay a higher copayment.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner