With an average of about 350 daily patients at urgent care centers (UCCs) across the country since November last year, the Taipei Doctors’ Union yesterday urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare to reconsider whether the policy of setting up UCCs is a misallocation of medical resources.
The ministry on Nov. 2 last year launched a UCC pilot program to provide urgent medical care at 13 clinics in the nation’s six special municipalities on weekends and holidays, intended to bleed off pressure on crowded emergency rooms.
The Taipei Doctors’ Union yesterday said the program has been running for two months, but it is not effectively diverting patients away from emergency rooms, and is failing to be cost-effective.
Photo: Lin Chih-yi, Taipei Times
The union’s president, Chen
Liang-fu (陳亮甫), said the data show that the average daily number patients who sought treatment at UCCs since November last year was about 350, and sometimes lower than 300, fewer than the daily patients at a typical hospital’s emergency department.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) Administration stopped disclosing patient numbers at each UCC since mid-November, but the union said that patients at the five UCCs in Taipei and New Taipei City accounted for less than 20 percent of patients, and that there was only an average of one patient per hour at each UCC, he said.
The government invested heavily in these clinics — about NT$120,000 per day per center, about NT$1.56 million (US$49,464) a day for all 13 centers — and even if the patients’ co-payments are factored in, UCCs cost about NT$1.5 million per day, he said.
If an average of 350 patients per day sought treatment at an emergency department of a medical center, it would only cost the NHI about NT$300,000 to NT$500,000 per day, Chen said, adding that the cost of running the UCCs is about three to five times higher.
He said many patients would rather spend more money on expensive co-payments at an emergency room to solve a problem quickly, as many believe they might still be referred to an emergency room if their illness or injury is too severe and cannot not be treated at the clinics.
Many local clinics in urban areas are still open on weekends, and they are often located more conveniently than the UCCs, he said.
The union said it understands the government’s good intention in attempting to relieve emergency room overcrowding, but it should consider setting specific indicators to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the UCCs, and if they cannot achieve the expected effect, they should be closed down or sited better.
The union suggested that the ministry consider setting up an online platform or hotline for triage, so patients can first evaluate whether their illness or injury can be treated at UCCs or if they should go to an emergency room.
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