The Ministry of Health and Welfare will take a three-pronged approach to encouraging professional caregivers to stay in their jobs, including raising the minimum salary to NT$32,000, Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
Chen made the comment as he presented a report to legislature’s Economic and Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene committees during a joint meeting.
He had been asked by the committees to present a special report on efforts to resolve problems causing caregivers to leave the profession, including poor working conditions, low salaries and personnel shortages.
His appearance at the Legislative Yuan came just days after Premier William Lai (賴清德) got into hot water for saying that while caregivers’ salaries are relatively low — about NT$30,000 per month — they should view their work as “doing good deeds.”
Lai made the comment at the ministry’s launch of its “1966 Hotline” on Thursday and he apologized on Friday.
Several legislators asked Chen if he held a similar view.
Although Lai’s remark sounded controversial, the intention was to encourage caregivers to have a more positive attitude about the difficulties of their jobs, Chen said.
“Our hope is for caregivers to make the most of their profession and we will do our best to help them achieve this, including by raising salaries, assisting with career planning and improving their professional image,” Chen said.
The ministry plans to establish a promotion system that could give experienced caregivers opportunities to become supervisors or even run their own care facilities, he said.
The average salary of professional caregivers had been relatively low, at about NT$25,000 to NT$27,000, Chen said, although the ministry had raised the minimum hourly wage from NT$180 to NT$200 in 2014.
After the Long-term Care Services Program 2.0 took effect this year, with subsidies for transportation and services in remote areas, the average salary increased to about NT$30,000, he said.
A new payment system would be launched and the minimum salary would be raised to at least NT$32,000 next year, he said.
Professional caregivers working under difficult conditions, in specific areas or with patients that have certain physical conditions would earn additional pay, he said.
The ministry would also try to use administrative measures to ensure that caregivers can make full use of their expertise, he said.
New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) also questioned Chen about lung cancer screening and detection efforts.
Deaths from lung cancer surpassed those from liver cancer last year, but more than half of all lung cancer cases were detected at relatively late stages, Huang said.
It was ironic that revenue from the tax on tobacco products is used to subsidize screening for four types of cancer, but lung cancer was not one of them, he said.
Japan has a higher detection rate of early stage lung cancer because it uses low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) in lung screening exams, Chen told Huang, adding that the ministry plans to start conducting LDCT screening for lung cancer next year.
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