A program to enhance medical services in 55 underserved areas would be revised within one month to exclude dentists with foreign degrees, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) said yesterday, after pressure to disallow it.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday requested that the ministry adopt stricter validation of foreign dentistry degrees, following talks with the Taiwan Dentist Alliance, which criticized the program for opening doors to dentistry students who were educated overseas.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) at a post-Cabinet meeting news conference cited Cho as saying that the program should focus on boosting mobile medical care capacity, funding dental device procurements at local public health centers, compensation for medical practitioners, and encouraging local doctors and dentists to work in remote areas.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
The ministry should adjust the program according to those principles and propose a revised version for approval by the Executive Yuan within a month, Cho was cited as saying.
The annual internship quota of 50 dentistry students with foreign degrees must not be increased, and the program should be revised to ensure that dental services in remote areas are provided by eligible and reliable dentists, Lee quoted Cho as saying.
Chiu said the second phase of the program would not be suspended, but revisions would be made to completely exclude dentists with foreign degrees.
The ministry would revise the program and send it to the Executive Yuan for approval, with the aim that the program would come into effect from next year as scheduled, he added.
Chiu said the program would be revised based on the three principles requested by Cho.
First, the locations to implement the program would still be the 55 underserved areas that lack dentists, with incentives such as scholarships to encourage dentists born in those areas and receiving education at local colleges to return to their hometown to work.
Second, the NT$2.4 billion (US$73.99 million) budget for the program would be used to fund improved dental devices in remote areas, so that local public health centers could provide better dental services for elderly people.
Last, the program’s budget would also be combined with National Health Insurance reimbursements to enrich the workforce, which would boost mobile medical care capabilities while encouraging dentists to stay and provide quality service in remote areas.
Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation secretary-general Lin Ya-hui (林雅惠) said incentives would have limited effect in retaining medical talent, and called for the allocation of resources for the long term to improve medical service insufficiencies in remote areas.
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