With a rapidly aging population and a cash-strapped National Health Insurance system, the government is paying more attention to the issue of “futile medical care,” treatment applied only to prolong life without a foreseeable cure or positive outcome, and the prospect of hospice care.
In a seminar held by medical groups yesterday, National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) Jinshan Branch Superintendent Huang Sheng-Jean (黃勝堅) made a presentation on how the community hospital he directs in Jinshan established the first hospice community in Taiwan.
Huang was assigned to the post by NTUH less than two years ago, when the hospital planned to initiate a pilot program promoting local, close-to-home healthcare and hospice community care in the district.
“Physicians at Jinshan branch don’t just stay in the hospital. They visit patients and their families at home and participate in community health-promotion activities to relate to local people,” Huang said.
The hospital is now employing the capitation payment system, which can be seen as a family practice system, Huang said, with a physician taking care of a number of patients closely instead of being visited by patients randomly.
The system works under the idea that pain prevention is more important than treatment, Huang added, stressing that this kind of preventive healthcare includes reducing the patient’s and their family’s suffering at the end of their life.
“Of the NT$570 billion [US$18.9 billion] healthcare expenditure paid by the NHI, about NT$170 billion is spent on futile medical treatment,” Huang said. “By operating preventive healthcare, including building quality end-of-life care and promoting the signing of DNR [do not resuscitate] to have ‘a good death,’ a lot can be saved, benefiting the sustainability of the NHI system.”
“The rate of the patients under end-of-life care that had signed the DNR was 9.2 per 1,000 last year, compared with a national rate of 6.3 per 1,000,” Huang said, adding that the number is expected to exceed 10 per 1,000 this year.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
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