The government’s policy to recruit foreign workers to help people hospitalized for acute conditions with daily care needs would benefit medical staff and families, while helping hospitals to staff 30,000 beds, Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday.
Speaking at a Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) event, Shih said that of the 70,000 beds in general acute wards across the nation, more than half — excluding those treating people with chronic conditions — were for patients who needed help with daily care needs.
The government’s Inpatient Integrated Care Trial Program has since 2022 provided publicly funded care, giving patients’ families more freedom, while medical staff can focus on other duties, Shih said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
The project has been positively received over the past three years, with medical staff providing favorable feedback, such as having a reduced workload, he said.
However, staff shortages in general acute wards persist, he said, adding that only 110 hospitals participated in the project last year, hiring 2,700 employees, which was only sufficient to staff 5,000 beds.
The ministry plans to provide NT$250 million (US$7.9 million) to expand the project and provide service for 30,000 beds, the ministry said.
After Shih on Monday announced that the MOHW would allow foreign caregivers to be added to the program, the Taiwan Nurses Union on Tuesday criticized the policy, saying it would create more stress for medical workers.
Medical union representatives also said the policy would pose challenges, including language barriers, management issues, concerns about professionalism and the need for complaint channels.
If the policy is enacted, the ministry would only recruit trained foreign caregivers who have worked in Taiwan for at least six years, Shih said, adding that they would have ample experience and would not face severe language barriers as feared.
National Taiwan University Hospital superintendent Yu Chung-jen (余忠仁) said that medical staff shortage was a systemic problem and that the introduction of a foreign workforce would reduce the workload of family members and hospital staff.
The EU, the US and Japan in the past few years have introduced foreign caregivers, Yu said, adding that a high concentration of foreign workers in manufacturing and engineering highlighted a significant lapse on Taiwan’s part.
Not all hospital jobs are performed by nurses, and assigning nurses to perform tasks that trained caregivers can handle is a waste of human resources, he said.
The current care model was designed on the premise that one person could care for multiple patients, but in practice, that ideal has been challenging to achieve, he said.
Nurses need to be relieved of menial tasks so they can refocus on professional issues, Yu said, adding that language barriers are not insurmountable if hospitals clearly define the workers’ roles and responsibilities.
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