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.
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
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai