PETITION: The Taiwan Health Reform Foundation has collected signatures from more than 70 medical groups urging lawmakers to speed up review of the amendments

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 29, 2018
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

More than 70 medical and labor groups have urged the Legislative Yuan to prioritize the proposed amendments to the Medical Act (醫療法) and pass them during this legislative session.

Citing hospital management problems — such as last year’s mass resignation of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital surgeons and the Mackay Memorial Hospital chairman having been accused of setting up private companies — the Taiwan Health Reform Foundation said the proposed amendments aimed at enhancing regulation of hospital management have been waiting at the legislature for nearly a year.

The foundation has collected signatures representing more than 70 medical and labor groups petitioning all party caucuses to speed up the review of proposed amendments so that it would pass the third reading before the end of next month, it said in a statement.

An investigation into June last year’s mass resignation has yet to be concluded after nearly a year, and the Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) has said the hospital can ignore investigators’ request for improvement, as the proposed amendments have not been passed, foundation chairperson Joanne Liu (劉淑瓊) said.
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