Several labor rights advocacy organizations yesterday urged the Control Yuan to investigate whether the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been negligent in supervising healthcare facilities, following a series of hospital management scandals and malpractice cases.
More than 20 people protested in front of the Control Yuan, chanting: “The government cannot see hospitals’ mistakes,” “The public has become victims of inconclusive investigations” and “Politicians should review the Medical Act (醫療法) as soon as possible.”
“Hospital management in Taiwan was at its most chaotic last year and it has shaken the public’s faith in the system,” Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation chairperson Joanne Liu (劉淑瓊) said.
She cited as examples the mass resignation of surgeons at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and reports that the hospital had performed more hysteroscopy procedures than other hospitals last year, scandals associated with the Mackay Memorial Hospital chairman and the use of tap water instead of reverse osmosis purified water on dialysis patients in an intensive care unit at National Taiwan University Hospital.
The ministry is in charge of healthcare, but it has failed to monitor healthcare facilities, she said.
Moreover, when the scandals were exposed, the ministry either said it did not know of the problems beforehand, the investigation was inconclusive or there would be no more follow-ups, she said.
The ministry collects hospitals’ financial statements and publicize the statistics regularly, but it failed to detect problems or compel hospitals to use their earnings to improve working conditions and healthcare quality, the groups said.
Although the ministry set up a task force in July last year to review the Chang Gung scandal and issued an investigation report in November, when it asked the hospital to submit a report on making improvements within a month, it has not revisited the hospital to follow up on the case, they said.
According to Article 41 of the Medical Act, if hospitals violated regulations or failed to deal with problems properly, the ministry can censure them and set a deadline for making improvements, Liu said.
“You [the ministry] have the imperial sword in your hand, why do you not unsheathe your sword? Tell us why,” she said, adding that the groups would submit a petition to the Control Yuan to probe whether the ministry has been negligent.
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