A shortage of medical resources has led to high infant mortality rates in the county, the Hualien Bureau of Health said last week.
Several county councilors, including Chang Mei-huui (張美慧), questioned county officials about the mortality rate at a council meeting.
The county has had the highest infant mortality rate nationwide for three years in a row, Hualien County Councilor Lamen Panay said, citing bureau statistics.
The county had an infant mortality rate of 6.6 deaths per 1,000 births in 2015, 6.8 deaths per 1,000 births in 2016 and 7.4 deaths per 1,000 births in 2017, she said.
The main cause for the relatively high rate is a shortage of medical resources in rural areas, bureau director-general Chu Chia-hsiang (朱家祥) said, adding that without regular checkups, pregnant women in rural areas do not receive educational information.
Since 2017, the central government has run a program to lower infant mortality in the county by monitoring high-risk pregnancies, providing high-risk expectant mothers with consultation services and helping pregnant women travel to a hospital to give birth, Chu said.
Lamen asked officials why none of the 36,000 trips made by Rehabus, a government-sponsored bus service for transporting people with disabilities, last year went to Fengbin Township (豐濱).
Hualien Transport Bus Co’s route from Hualien Station to Jingpu (靜浦) stops at Fengbin Hospital, but two routes from the station to Taitung County require people to walk 200m uphill to reach the hospital, making the routes a problem for those who have difficulty walking, she said.
“No trips were made from Fengbin due to the cost of the Rehabus service,” Hualien Social Affairs Department director Chang Yi-hua (張逸華) said, adding that low-income families do not pay, but other families must pay half of the metered cost, while the county pays the other half.
Hualien County Commissioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) said that she would coordinate between the Directorate-General of Highways and Rehabus so that an additional stop would be added to the routes that pass the hospital.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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