The central government and Kinmen County have agreed that a medical transport helicopter should be permanently stationed in the island county, with the county to pay a portion of the costs, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) said on Friday.
Yang, KMT Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yang Yao (楊曜) worked for the deal, Yang Cheng-wu said.
Yang Cheng-wu said he considered it his foremost goal to persuade the Ministry of Health and Welfare to station a medivac helicopter in Kinmen, adding that he was glad to see his mission accomplished last month at the conclusion of the bidding process.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The medivac helicopter would cut the transport time to major hospitals by at least half, which could make the difference between life and death, Yang Cheng-wu said.
The Kinmen County Government was asked to pay 70 percent of the helicopter fees, Yang Cheng-wu said, adding that legislators convinced the ministry to lower the fees by 20 percent.
The ministry agreed to the rate because of Kinmen’s location and lack of medical resources, Yang Cheng-wu said.
The rate the Kinmen government is to pay for the helicopter’s maintenance is to decline in accordance with the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures Act (財政收支劃分法), Yang Cheng-wu said
The county can expect its first medivac by the middle of next year, he said.
Yang Cheng-wu called for closer cooperation between the health ministry and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications when building the helipad and examining the helicopter.
Safety is of the utmost concern, Yang Cheng-wu said, adding that the central government should make a schedule to introduce the service available to local residents.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS