A National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) pediatrician yesterday expressed his “disgust” at politicians who misuse their authority in the “name of caring for children,” in an apparent reference to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋), who on Tuesday rebutted claims that he had used his position to berate health officials and doctors.
On Friday last week, NTUH obstetrician Shih Jin-chung (施景中) wrote on Facebook that a department director at a large teaching hospital told him that a legislator’s assistant had taken their child to see a doctor, but was unsatisfied with the service and got into an argument with the doctor.
He said the assistant reported the incident to the legislator, and the legislator immediately sent out an urgent official notice, asking the heads of the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) and National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), as well as the hospital’s deputy superintendent, to meet him at his office at 5pm on the same day.
Photo: Lo Pei –de, Taipei Times
The legislator scolded the participants at the meeting, but later found out it was a misunderstanding on the part of his assistant, Shih wrote, adding that the department director had to put aside his clinical duties to attend the meeting.
As Shih had written that the lawmaker is facing a second-phase recall petition, speculation about the legislator’s identity began spreading.
On Monday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung City Councilor Chiang Chao-kuo (江肇國) on Monday said the lawmaker in question is Lo.
Lo on Tuesday told a news conference that he held the coordination meeting on Jan. 21 because the NHIA’s Web site listed the NTUH as one of the hospitals that provide “child development screening services,” but the hospital said it has not opened an outpatient clinic for the service.
He added that the meeting was attended by the NTUH’s pediatric infectious diseases division director, an HPA section chief, another HPA section deputy chief, as well as an NHIA senior specialist — but not the HPA and NHIA heads, nor the hospital’s deputy superintendent.
On Tuesday, media personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) posted a photograph of the official notice that Lo had sent, dated Jan. 21, asking the HPA and NHIA heads, as well as the hospital’s deputy superintendent, to attend the meeting at 5pm the same day.
Claiming that he did not misuse his authority, Lo said he has always cared about the healthcare of preterm babies, and that he only cares about children’s welfare while others only care about smearing his name.
Following Lo’s claims, an NTUH pediatrician, writing under his real name on “A-Pen” — Taiwan’s largest online physician community platform — said: “The fact is the assistant wanted to bring her child in for the screening service and tried to book an appointment, but was told about the situation at the hospital, so she was upset and told her boss to issue an official notice [calling for a meeting].”
The pediatrician wrote that the incident took place in the afternoon and the lawmaker sent out the notice at 3pm asking health officials and hospital management to go to his office at 5pm and provide an explanation, which many of the teaching staff and his coworkers found unacceptable.
There is room for debate about the screening service program, he said, but added that: “I can only say that the attitude of the politician, who misused his authority in the name of caring for children, is extremely disgusting.”
Lo yesterday said he does not know the pediatrician, and neither the pediatrician nor Shih had attended the meeting that day.
Additional reporting by CNA
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