The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday said it does not rule out working with the Ministry of Labor on easing restrictions on hiring foreign workers to help with a nursing shortage.
NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) made the comment during a presentation at a forum organized by the Taiwan Union of Nurses Association and Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
Shih highlighted Taiwan’s increasing demographic challenges, including a shrinking workforce and aging population in need of care.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
Since 2015, the NHIA has reallocated resources to improve inpatient nursing care, including moving NT$20 billion (US$615.2 million) from hospital budgets to general services and increasing nursing fees, he said.
However, the number of nurses has only grown by 4,000, showing the need to continue improving salaries, he said.
Taiwan has expanded its inpatient care program to meet the needs of an aging population, a low fertility rate and the inability of working-age family members to care for older relatives, he said.
In the inpatient care program, hospitals arrange for nursing assistants to provide care for acute patients, allowing for continuous supervision, he said.
For the service, the NHIA pays hospitals 750 points (1 point equals NT$1) per day per nursing assistant, and the patient pays up to NT$1,050 in fees, he said.
When it was first launched in 2022, the program had a NT$300 million budget with 40 hospitals and 2,847 beds, Shih said.
The program expanded to NT$560 million, 111 hospitals and 5,376 beds last year, along with an increase in usage rate from 14.1 percent to 37.2 percent, he said.
From January to July, the program served 36,380 patients, almost matching last year’s total, he added.
Although patient satisfaction is high with the program, its expansion has been limited by a shortage of nursing staff, Shih said.
If the public supports it, the Ministry of Labor could amend regulations to include foreign workers in these wards, he said.
Taiwan Union of Nurses Association president Chi Shu-ching (紀淑靜) expressed support for including trained foreign care workers and nursing graduates to assist with daily patient care, allowing licensed nurses to concentrate on administering medicine and more urgent tasks.
Pilot programs have shown promising results and there is an opportunity for more government funding to expand them, Chi said.
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