There is a saying that a government trains an army for 1,000 days to be able to respond to a sudden, urgent need. This is a very good way to describe the function of the National Health Insurance Administration’s (NHIA) NHI-MediCloud system and the health insurance IC card.
As all Taiwanese stand together in the fight against COVID-19, the system allows frontline medical providers to immediately find out if a patient has traveled to China, Hong Kong or Macau, and permits masks to be sold through NHI-certified pharmacies as part of a mask rationing system.
The whole process treats epidemic prevention as a battle — and without the support of the NHI-certified pharmacies, it would be impossible to implement this policy.
Because of COVID-19, demand for masks has increased by the day, but the rationing system gives more people access to masks — and gives them fairer access.
Since the real-name system — where people provide their health insurance card to buy masks — took effect on Feb. 6, the Taiwan Pharmacist Association, the Pharmacist Association of ROC and 6,336 NHI-certified community pharmacies have been working hard to improve the situation: dividing the mask distributions into smaller packages, lining people up and issuing numbers to reduce wait times.
There are still long lines, but the enthusiastic and efficient service at the pharmacies has effectively reduced “mask panic.”
To make buying masks easier for people in the countryside, who might get up earlier, the NHIA has granted pharmacies more flexibility in setting their opening hours — from 7am to 10am — to address differences between urban and rural areas.
To further improve service, the NHIA has added functions in the system where pharmacies can add the hours that masks are sold and their telephone numbers, making it easier for the public to contact them.
Pharmacies issue number tickets, but flexible hours are necessary, as pharmacists still need time to dispense prescriptions.
As a result, the mask inventory of NHI-certified pharmacies would vary when people check.
The NHIA has improved its system functionality so that pharmacies can quickly check mask availability across the network.
The appearance of COVID-19 is just part of the reality people live in — there is no one to blame.
Taiwanese must address the outbreak in an effective and pragmatic manner, and work together to overcome it.
The reliance on a stable health insurance information system comes from having established an effective cloud information-sharing system for hospitals and clinics as part of the goal of promoting a tiered healthcare system, which we have been working toward over the past three years.
Following policy directions by Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), we all sacrificed a day during the Lunar New Year holiday and worked with the National Immigration Agency and the Centers for Disease Control to check lists of names of people entering Taiwan from Wuhan and other places in China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau, against medical information on their NHI cards.
Currently, 373,432 entries have been checked, giving hospitals and medical clinics a powerful tool in COVID-19 prevention.
Epidemic prevention cannot be handled by a single ministry. The government is a unit and it can unite to fight COVID-19.
Taiwan is also in the flu season. As part of preventing the spread of COVID-19 and influenza, people who are picking up prescriptions should seriously consider getting them filled at their local pharmacy to minimize hospital visits.
As community pharmacies work with the government to sell masks, many people have found pharmacy staff to be warm and caring, and have been impressed by the medical expertise they show in dispensing prescriptions.
The NHIA should take advantage of community pharmacies and work with them to offer the public even more services.
The COVID-19 fight has benefited from using the health insurance information system.
The Taiwan Pharmacist Association, the Pharmacist Association of ROC and all pharmacists deserve much appreciation and gratitude for their support in opening a new frontier in epidemic prevention.
As NHIA director-general, I have written a letter of encouragement to my coworkers, saying that in having the rare opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to society that values life, we must all work together and do all that we can to succeed.
Leave masks to those who need them. Understand when it is the right time to wear a mask.
During this transitional period, do not be too bothered by the fact that people only get two masks per week. Leave a few more for the medical professionals on the front line and the patients — they are the ones who need them most.
We on the government team will work hard to protect the health of all Taiwanese. We should all work together and do the best we can to succeed.
Lee Po-chang is director-general of the National Health Insurance Administration.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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