The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the nation’s medical system must be bolstered to shoulder disease prevention duties ranging from border controls to aiding local communities, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said.
Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, made the remarks in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday.
Disease prevention efforts should not have to erode the provision of medical resources to the public, Chen said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
A majority of Taiwan’s medical industry is in private hands and benign competition keeps the industry at peak efficiency, he said.
“However, being overly efficient might become a problem during pandemics, as the extra work — piled on an already heavy workload — lowers the original capability the industry could have offered,” Chen said.
Giving an example, Chen said the US medical system is strong and efficient, but as can be seen during the pandemic, most of it has closed down, collapsing under the weight of epidemic prevention, an influx of COVID-19 patients and other severe illnesses.
Likewise, Taiwan’s medical system is wound too tight and its focus on peak efficiency would mean that when the time comes, its peak performance would be insufficient, Chen said.
One method of resolving this issue is to boost government involvement, Chen said, adding: “We must leave room to do more, when it is necessary.”
Regarding the improvement of disease prevention institutions, Hospital and Social Welfare Organizations Administration Commission Director Wang Pi-Sheng (王必勝) said that besides sufficient funding and staff, public hospitals are in urgent need of systemic reforms.
Public hospitals are comprised of ministry-operated hospitals, military hospitals, veterans’ hospitals, university-affiliated hospitals, and county or city hospitals, but they cannot collaborate, as they operate under different hierarchies, he said.
If these could be integrated or grouped under an independent bureau-level organization, their overall efficiency would increase, Wang said.
Turning to the issue of overseas Taiwanese visiting Taiwan to use the nation’s medical resources, while a majority of COVID-19 cases having been imported from abroad, Chen said that most coronavirus patients are being treated using state funding and are not related to the National Health Insurance (NHI) program.
However, the pandemic has highlighted a problem in the NHI system, which is insufficient funding, he said.
Some have called for raising NHI premiums, but they must realize that there would be a certain amount of wastage, as the NHI uses a third-party payment system, Chen said.
For some, the waste is intentional, but for others, it is an institutional problem, he said, adding that if the premiums are raised too much, it would hurt those who have done nothing wrong.
Whether the system should be changed and what changes need to be made should be discussed, he added.
Additional reporting by Lin Hui-chin
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS