Amendments to the Rare Diseases Prevention and Medication Act (罕見疾病防治及藥物法) and the Nursing Personnel Act (護理人員法) were passed by the legislature yesterday to make more complete the care and support provided for those afflicted with rare diseases and to improve oversight of nursing institutions.
The changes to the rare disease act were made to guarantee the government’s financial backing of supportive and palliative care for people with rare diseases that are not covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI), to ensure that services such as psychological support and birth care are provided for patients and their families, to accelerate the review process for medications needed by patients to be covered by the NHI, and to establish an emergency drug-supplying mechanism to avoid a sudden shortage or termination of production.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Yu-hsin (楊玉欣), who has a rare disease called Miyoshi myopathy — a progressive muscle disorder that causes muscle weakness and atrophy — and uses a wheelchair, said that while the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis “Ice Bucket Challenge” raised public awareness for the rare disease, patient groups, though encouraged by the campaign, are worried that the awareness it raised will not last in the long term.
“The government has the responsibility to institutionalize [both the medical and supportive] care for people with rare diseases,” Yang said.
On the regulations governing the country’s nursing homes, while the existing law states that the health authority is to conduct inspections only when “needed,” the legislature-approved amendments to the Nursing Personnel Act mandated government-authorized examinations of nursing institutions and raised the penalty for institutions’ failures to pass such regular reviews.
“The nursing institutions shall not shun, obstruct or reject the said reviews and inspections,” the revised regulation added.
Institutions failing to pass reviews are to be fined between NT$6,000 and NT$30,000 and forced to close for at least a month and for up to a year if no improvement is made after the first penalty.
Fines of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000 would be issued if the violations were made by institutions that provide long-term residential care.
The amendments have come on the heels of the release of a report on senior citizens’ nursing homes by the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Commission on Monday, which found that 90 percent (18 out of 20) of the nursing homes for elderly people inspected in six cities and counties were not up to standard.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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