The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the long-term care 3.0 program’s implementation starting next year, which is to feature reduced waiting time for outpatients to receive care and expanded geographical coverage of facilities.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) approved the Ministry of Health and Welfare plan and instructed it to prepare for its rollout by working closely with the private sector, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lue Jen-der (呂建德) during the meeting reported on the program’s achievements and unveiled its targets, an Executive Yuan statement said.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
Long-term care 2.0, the current iteration of the program, owed its success to collaboration between the public and private sectors, Lue said.
Since 2016, the number of program recipients has increased 8.4 times to 756,000, its workforce increased fourfold to 100,000 and funding increased 18.7 times to NT$92.6 billion (US$2.81 billion), he said.
Long-term care facilities increased 20.9 times to 15,000 and the average waiting period for out-of-hospital patients for receiving care decreased 13 times to four days during the same period, he added.
Nearly 90 percent of program recipients were satisfied with the services provided, the statement cited Lue as saying.
The new version of the program is to focus on building a long-term care facility within 10 minutes’ drive of every household while improving the quality of care, he said.
The program would divide Taiwan into administrative regions, he added.
It would decrease the average waiting time for outpatients to obtain the services of carers, an area in which the ministry has already made strides, Lue was cited as saying.
The target is to reduce waiting times to minus-one day, meaning long-term care arrangements would be made the day before a patient leaves hospital, he said.
The program would integrate hospitals and long-term care to boost the quality of care for moderately or severely impaired people, Lue said.
The number of recipients would be increased from people aged 65 and older, indigenous people aged 55 and older, and people with disabilities to younger age groups, he said.
Medical data showed the average age of stroke victims is declining in Taiwan, he added.
The centerpiece of the new program is making improvements to community-based care as envisioned in the current program, ministry officials were cited as saying.
The program would additionally pre-emptively promote health, strengthening family-based care solutions, making better use of algorithms, implementing end-of-life care, and facilitating career education and training, they said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS