Women’s and medical rights advocates yesterday complained of a lack of transparency in cases involving sexual harassment by medical personnel.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare in August set up a Web site to provide information on cases of sexual harassment by medical personnel, but the site only lists final rulings on sexual harassment charges after 2023, the advocates told a news conference yesterday.
No cases before 2023 have been made public, and some doctors have not been included on the site because they have refused to have their information made public, Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation chief executive Lin Ya-hui (林雅惠) said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Legislators and civic groups said the level of transparency was insufficient to address public concerns about the issue.
The Modern Women’s Foundation, the Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation and the Taipei Doctors’ Union jointly urged full transparency on whether medical personnel have a record of sexual harassment or molestation, a continuous update of punitive regulations, and for hospitals to inform the government if personnel need to be further monitored.
Department of Medical Affairs Deputy Director-General Liu Yu-ching (劉玉菁) said that the Web site only publishes final rulings, because the administrative branch has reservations about publishing information if it has not been thoroughly investigated.
Standing regulations state that an investigation should immediately follow any report of sexual harassment, and the ministry has asked that local social welfare departments to alert local health departments the moment they are notified about a sexual harassment case.
This would reduce the time needed for investigation and discussion on whether punitive measures are required, Liu said.
Taipei Doctors’ Union Gender Equality Committee director-general Yu Cheng-min (于政民) said that the ministry should make statistics on doctors committing sexual harassment or molestation transparent, and that the government should include a hospital’s gender equality and harassment prevention efforts as part of its performance assessment indicators.
Modern Women’s Foundation president Wang Ju-hsuan (王如玄) said that enforcement of punitive measures against doctors is slow, sometimes taking up to three to four years, and they were often just a slap on the wrist.
Some doctors continue to practice even after a court ruling against them, and would not quit their jobs until the incident is exposed by the media, Wang said.
The Physicians’ Act (醫師法) and other ethics regulations should be revised to include sexual harassment incidents, she said.
The ministry said that it would instruct local health departments to provide information on punitive actions taken against medical personnel who have been litigated for sexual molestation as soon as January.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS