physicians, medical Doctors in Taiwan                           
                            ★   this site's world No. 1 in  2020~21,  2017~19,  2016,  2015, 2014, 2013,  2010~12     ★  Top rankings since 1998    ★


　

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New Location : http://intlhumanrights.com/TaiwanHospitalsMD.htm ★

In Bloomberg's CovID-19 Resilience Ranking at 2021-8-25 (bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/),  Taiwan plunges into the bottom half of the Ranking (from No. 5 in April, down to now No. 41 ). Taiwan was ranked No.49 out of 50 countries in Economist "The Global Normalcy Index".  Bloomberg, 2021-8-25: Taiwan's 3-month case-fatality rate is 7.6% which is the worst among countries of Asia and Pacific, compared with Singapore's 0.4%, S. Korea 0.3%, Japan 0.5%, China 0%.  Taiwan's case-fatality rate increases to 5.22% (2021-9-9,  coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/taiwan, Microsoft Bing statistics) from 4.9% which ranked 8th highest worldwide according to Johns Hopkins University, China Post, 2021-7-14.   Statista : Taiwan's CovID-19 patient recovery rate (2020-1-22 ~ 2021-9-5) is 85.8%, Microsoft Bing statistics, 2021-9-9: recovered 0;    The father of CoronaVirus in Taiwan, 賴明詔, said Singapore's medical tech. is better, and the culture is different. ( e.g., Financial Times, 2021-6-1: Another problem appears to be cultural...other public health experts have been discouraged from challenging Health Minister......The country ... was not prepared for a surge of infections).  Guardian, 2021-6-7: Taiwan authorities hadn’t kept up with new scientific knowledge around virulent new strains...   theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/07/a-victim-of-its-own-success-how-taiwan-failed-to-plan-for-a-major-covid-outbreak  The number of Taiwanese deaths in 1 day (Jun. 5) is more than that in Singapore in 1.5 years.  The PCR test capacity in Singapore is 5+ times of that in Taiwan (https://udn.com/news/story/121823/5493969?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2) , but Singapore's population is about 1/4 Taiwan's.  FTV, 2021-7-12: Taiwan's CoVID high death rate is caused by inadequate medicine. UDN, 2021-6-7: It's hard for patients to have Remdesivir.  Bloomberg, 2021-7-25: Taiwan’s medical care system is run on a tight budget to keep costs affordable.  Taipei Medical University professor 楊哲銘 comments Taiwan's medical quality is no longer good.  Taiwan's former medical chief 楊志良 (chinatimes.com/opinion/20210804005734-262104?chdtv) criticizes that the health & medical system has been damaged.  full text: CovID-19 in Taiwan   There's no any Taiwan's hospitals selected in "World's Best Hospitals" by Newsweek, 2020 and 2021.
　

　

　

pic. : This websites group was ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at  2021-9-6, 2021-8-30, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-14, 2021-8-8, 2021-7-31, 2021-7-23, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-4, 2021-4-28, 2021-4-23, 2021-4-18, 2021-4-10, 2-14-2021, 3-8-2021   

　

　

pic. : This websites group http://intlHumanRights.com was ranked No.1 on Yandex of Russia  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7,  2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-16

ps: :my backup site CourageWorld.ch has been attacked by pro hackers

　

　

　

     

pic. left: No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on Microsoft Bing ,  2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-5-25, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10,  3-10-2021, 2-12-2021, 8-17-2020, 8-5-2020;

pic. right: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Microsoft Bing , 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-31,  2021-5-25, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 2-12-2021

　

　

      

pic. left: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Duckduckgo ,  2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-11; pic. right: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Yahoo Japan (largest serach engine in Japan) , 2021-9-6,  2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11

　

　

　

pic. : This websites group http://intlHumanRights.com was ranked No.1 on Yandex  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at  2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29

　

　

　

    

pic. left: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on ecosia of Germany , 2021-9-6,  2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-31, 2021-5-25, 2021-4-27,  2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020; pic. right: No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on ecosia of Germany , 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-16,   2021-5-31  

　

　

    

 pic.: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" SwissCows (Switzerland) , 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-25, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020; pic. right: No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on SwissCows , 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24,   2021-6-16, 2021-5-31  

　

　

      

pic. : No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan"on Yahoo Taiwan, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-16, 2021-5-31, 5- 19-2019.

pic. : This websites group's ranked No.1 on Yahoo Taiwan  by keyword  "physicians in Taiwan" , 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-31, 5- 19-2019.

　

     

pic. : This websites group  was ranked No.1 on Yandex of Russia  by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  test at  2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-16; No. 3 at 2021-9-6

　

pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on US Yahoo serach engine , 2021-7-18 ; No.2 at 2021-8-20

　

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pic. : This websites group was ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at  2021-9-5, 2021-8-19, 2021-7-17, 2021-6-28, 2021-4-28, 2021-4-23, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021 

　

　

pic. : No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on US Yahoo serach engine , 2021-7-18; No.2 at 2021-8-20

　

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Some government's research projects such as 「2019年西醫師人力發展估計畫期末報告」,「衛生福利部104年度科技研究計畫」by Dr. Chao A. Hsiung, 熊昭 conclude: the supply shortage pf physicians (M.D.) would be possible, given that the number of regional hospitals increasing one per year till end of 2020, as for other scenarios, supply exceeds demand.  The Liberty Times (opinion, 12-22-2020, https://talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1420360王宏育) notes that, on average, one medical Doctor is for 250- patients in Taipei city, 500- patients in Taiwan, besides, about 1500 Doctors graduate from medical school in each year, Taiwan's current problem are (1) the more Doctors, the heavier burden to insurance system, (2) inequality  ―  the underprivileged minority in remote places needs better medical care.  In contrast, according to WEF<Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 9-4-2019), Taiwan's Health & Hygiene (including "physicians density" ) score 6.0 is worse than that of No.16 Japan, No. 17 Korea, and Australia, Mongolia.   According to  WEF<Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 4-6-2017), Taiwan's "Physician density" ranks pretty bad   ―   world No. 65 (No. 57 in 2015's report).  

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                                                             Num. of physicians in Taiwan from '12 to '19               https://www.statista.com/statistics/860217/taiwan-physician-number/

yr

 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

number

 40,938 41,965 42,961 44,006 44,849 46,356 47,471 49,542

increase

 　 1,027 996 1,045 843 1,507 1,115 2,071

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According to Wikipedia (2021-5-5) and Liberty Times (2020-1-6),  Taiwan's doctor-to-population ratio (see pic. below) almost hit lowest in Asia, behind Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam...even Myanmar,  Doctor visits about 2 to 5 minutes per patient.  Taiwan also suffers a shortage of nurses.  For budget factor, Taiwan's system has no regard for faculties of risk (surgery, internal medicine, gynaecology, pediatrics, emergency), which affects the medicine, operation and diagnostic tools (X-ray vs. MRI) prescribed.  The government said (LTN, 2020-1-6) the upper limit, 1,300, of new Doctors in each year will be reevaluated.  Scholar 鄭英耀 criticized the big imbalance of medical resource between Taipei and Kaohsiung, TaiTung, PinTung, remote places, mountains, which should be improved urgently.  As for other indexes, Taiwan loses Hong Kong, Macau (China), Singapore, S. Korea etc in indexes such as Life Expectancy at birth, Death per 1,000 Population, and Health-Care Cost, etc (see pic. below).  Taiwan was not included in top 100 "best healthcare in the world, 2021" by world population review (worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world).  None of Taiwan's hospitals were selected in Newsweek's "World Best Hospitals 2020", but many hospitals in Asia's Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India etc were included in top 100 (see pic. below).  Taiwan's high education was ranked around No. 8 ~ No. 10 among Asian & Pacific countries in Nature Index (2020), Times Higher Education-World University Rank (2021),  Quacquarelli Symonds UK (2021) full text , etc.   Apple Daily (6-30-2018) notes Taiwan's only pride left, health insurance, includes no preventive health care and health promotion, and will worsen within next 10 years for political factors.   Apple Daily (6-30-2018) pointed out Taiwan's only pride left, health insurance, includes no preventive health care and health promotion, and will worsen within next 10 years for political factors. 

　

World's Best Hospitals 2021

www.newsweek.com/best-hospitals-2021
world rank country hospital
No.8 Singapore Singapore General Hospital
No.16 Japan The University of Tokyo Hospital
18 Japan St. Luke's International Hospital
34 S. Korea Asan Medical Center
42 S. Korea Seoul National University Hospital
43 Japan Kameda Medical Center
62 Japan  Kyushu University Hospital
71 Japan Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine
73 S. Korea Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine
76 S. Korea Severance Hospital - Yonsei University
84 Japan Kyoto University Hospital
87 S. Korea Seoul National University - Bundang Hospital
91 Japan Kurashiki Central Hospital
97 S. Korea Korea University - Anam Hospital
number of selected hospitals in top 100 list  - Japan: 7 ;  S. Korea : 6; Singapore: 1
101-200 S. Korea 6 
101-200 India 2  All India Institute of Medical Sciences - Delhi, Medanta The Medicity
101-200 Thailand 1   Bumrungrad International Hospital
101-200 Singapore 2   Gleneagles Hospital,  National University Hospital
101-200 Japan 10
total number of selected hospitals - Japan: 17 ;  S. Korea : 12 ; Singapore: 3; India: 2; Thai: 1

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Wikipedia : physicians density in Asia

 Newsweek:  World Best Hospitals 2020
Asia's rankings country  physicians
per 10,000 people		 global
rankings		 country hospitals
1 Qatar 77.4 8 Singapore Singapore General Hospital
2 N Korea 33 16 Japan St Luke's Int'l Hospital
3 Australia 32.7 18 Japan  The U of Tokyo Hospital
4 Lebanon 32 28 Australia Royal Melbourne Hospital
5 Mongolia 28.4 31 Singapore National Univ Hospital 
6 New Zealand 27.4 36 Australia Alfred Hospital
7 Jordan 25.6 42 S. Korea Samsung Medical Center
8 UAE 25.3 45 Japan Kyoto Univ Hospital
9 Saudi Arabia 24.9 50-100 India All India Institute of Medical Sciences
10 Japan 23 Japan Kameda Medical Center
11 Korea 21.4 S. Korea Korea Univ Anam Hospital
12 Singapore 19.5 Japan Kurashiki Center Hospital
13 China 14.9 Japan Kyushu Univ Hospital
14 Malaysia 12 Japan Osaka Univ Hospital
15 Philippines 12 Australia Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital
16 Vietnam 11.9 Australia Royal prince Alfred Hospital
17 Iran 9 S. Korea Seoul National Univ - Bundang Hospital
18 Pakistan 8.3 S. Korea Seoul National Univ Hospital
19 Indonesia 8 S. Korea Severance Hospital
20 India 7 S. Korea The Catholic Univ of Korea - St. Mary's Hospital
21 Myanmar 6.1

 table. above:  newsweek.com/best-hospitals-2020

　

table left: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_physicians
 , data:  2007-2013

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Taiwan   2021-5-5

　

talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343896   Liberty Times, 2020-1-6

talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343897
talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343895
22 Iraq 6.1
23 Taiwan  (Taipei city) 5.01
23 Taiwan
 (Kaohsiung city, PingTung, TaiTung city)		 2.12
24 Laos 1.8
25 Cambodia 1.7
★
Health Care Costs By Country 2021 　 World population Data Sheet, PRB  2020-7-10  

　
Global
Rankings		 Country Global
Rankings		 Country Country Life Expectancy
 at birth		 L.Expectancy
(Male)		 L.Expectancy
(Female)		 Death per 1000 population
1 China 27 Myanmar China HK 85 82 88 6
2 India 28 South Korea Macau 84 81 87 3
4 Indonesia 36 Iraq Japan 84 81 87 11
5 Pakistan 41 Saudi Arabia Singapore 83 81 85 5
8 Bangladesh 45 Malaysia S Korea 83 80 86 6
11 Japan 49 Nepal Taiwan 80 77 84 7
13 Philippines 54 North Korea 　 　
15 Vietnam 57 Taiwan 　

worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/health-care-costs-by-country

worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world    2021

prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/letter-booklet-2020-world-population.pdf
18 Iran 58 Sri Lanka
20 Thailand 71 Cambodia 

According to professor 林鴻志 on Apple Daily (2021-5-8, tw.appledaily.com/forum/20210508/3DJUH6VA2ZEKDEIOXXCAHEER4E/ ), Taiwan's neonatal mortality rate is ranked at latter part of OECD countries, top 5 death causes are congenital anomaly chromosome abnormalities, respiratory diseases, PNM, Perinatal mortality, illness related to fetal growth & gestation, accidents and perinatal infection.  The government needs to improve national insurance coverage, on such as a well-trained and licensed Doctor should be on the site when a child was born, to decrease the possibility of complication.   The statistics by CIA Factbook and Wikipedia show Taiwan's Infant Mortality ranks world No. 41 and is behind countries of Asia & Pacific like Japan, Singapore, HK, S. Korea, Australia, Macau and NZ in 2020 as well as in 2018. (see table below)
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Infant mortality (deaths/1,000 live births) – 2018 and 2020 estimates

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_and_under-five_mortality_rates
rankings country death/1,000 live births(2020) death/1,000 live births (2018)

Doctors per 10,000 people in Taiwan
　 Taipei Southern and Eastern Taiwan (Kaohsiung, PinTung, TaiTung, PonHo), remote places
physicians 5.01 2.12
surgeon 1.77 0.82
Pediatrics 1.11 0.46
Obstetrics & Gynecology  0.86 0.42
Accident & Emergency 0.82 0.47
Liberty Times, 2020-1-6;
talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343896
1 (2) Japan 1.9 2.0
2 (5) Singapore 2.3 2.3
3 (12) Hong Kong 2.7 2.7
4 (13) S. Korea 3 3.0
5 (14) Australia 3.1 4.2
5 (15) Macau 3.1 3.1
6 (30) NZ 3.5 4.1
7 (41) Taiwan 4.2 4.3

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Taiwan only ranks world 45th position in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017 (based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study, 2015),  some chronic disease items got very low scores, e.g.,   Leukemia score 49,  Kidney disease 50, Gallbladder & biliary 57, Hypertensive Heart Disease 60,   diabetes mellitus 58, etc.  But, according to Lancet's Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index released at May 23, 2018,  from 1990 to 2016, 186 of 195 countries and territories significantly increased their HAQ Index score, South Korea, Taiwan (Province of China), and Cyprus recorded the largest improvements among high-SDI countries.  Taiwan's HAQ is still behind other Asia & Pacific countries, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and USA.

Lancet's national or territory

estimates of the HAQ Index

yr. 2016 2000 　
Australia 95.9 90.4
Japan 94.1 86.9
New Zealand 92.4 87.0
Singapore 90.6 79.7
S Korea 90.3 74.4
USA 88.7 86.8
Taiwan 85.4 71.8

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　 Taiwan ranks world 45th in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017
   
　 　

http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(17)30818-8.pdf  

　

In Lancet, Jun. 2018, Taiwan's NM skin cancer (20)  , congenital heart (69 ), chronic kidney (55)  , Diabetes (60 ), gallbladder ( 64 ), hypertensive HD  (61), stroke  (63)  , Lower respiratory infections (LRIs), peptic ulcer, got low scores, but Hernia,Diphtheria, Tetanu, URls  , Maternal disorders, leukemia, chronic respiratory got excellent score。In lancet healthcare access and quality index (Jun. 2018), Taiwan is behind some other countries of Asia and Pacific, Australia, Japan, NZ, Singapore, Korea, Lebanon。

　

Besides, Apple Daily (2021-4-23) points out that the neurology (taking care of the most number of Persons with Disabilities) and its patients have been often ignored by government and national insurance system.  ( tw.appledaily.com/forum/20210423/DMJGXHAOSBGO5J5KUNRFL5MVSA/ )

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AIT (American de facto embassy to Taiwan,  ait.org.tw/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/) made some comments about Taiwan's medical system : (1) huge numbers of physicians in large hospitals have received training abroad – most of them in the U.S. (2) In most Taiwanese emergency rooms, patients lying on gurneys crowded everywhere – sometimes down the hall and out the door  (3)  Hospital based outpatient clinics differ dramatically from Western notions of privacy and the doctor-patient relationship (4) In some instances, the ambulances are short of trained technicians or/and medical equipments......  

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As for CovID-19 , in Bloomberg's CovID-19 Resilience Ranking (2021-6-28),  Taiwan plunges into the bottom half of the Ranking , accentuated by a lagging vaccination drive and a resurgent outbreak; compared with the same list No. 4 in April, and No. 15 in May 2021.  Taiwan's death rate is double global average.  Taiwan's recovery rate  is much worse than that of other major countries of Asia & Pacific.  According to  CovID-19 Taiwan deaths - Google Search, 2021-5-27, Singapore 99.1%, Hong Kong 97.6%, China 94.5%, Korea 92.75%, Japan 88.9%,  (pic. below).  Media reports (UDN, 2021-6-7) Taiwanese patients in serious situation waiting for about one week but failed to get Remdesivir, a specific remedy for cure coronavirus, in spite of that CovID headquarter declares Remdesivir in stock is enough.  In short, the stock is enough because they don't give you. (udn.com/news/story/7339/5513808?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2) 

  China Times, editorial, 2021-6-9: The medicine for patients is not enough which made high death rate and high number of severe CovID disease.
chinatimes.com/opinion/20210608005991-262101?chdtv  CTV news, 2021-6-9: In 2020, only 1 hospital, NTUH,  can use  Remdesivir, a specific remedy for CovID-19 patients, in earlier this year, all hospitals need CDC's approval (was rejected quite often) and usually 8 ~ 12 hours for patients to use it, sometimes it's too late to save lives.  CTV news, 2021-6-30, 19:11: CovID patient in Ministry of Health's PingTung Hospital got nothing but antipyretic, cough medicine.  Besides, Taiwan did not use Monoclonal antibody  in the first place to save patients.  Will Taiwan's national Insurance system treat patients with other critical diseases like this ?  Taipei Medical University professor 楊哲銘 says "we should no more think Taiwan's medical quality is quite good" (udn.com/news/story/7339/5513808?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2).  Global Times criticizes "Taiwan authorities have no intention or power to fight the epidemic at all.",  "Taiwan's COVID-19 fight has been a mess and the Taiwan authorities can only play tricks to make up for their mistakes".   globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1225525.shtml globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1225540.shtml (ps: they regard politics more).  China Times, 2021-6-26: some medical expert's critiques lead to being "horror attack" by internet army.  No wonder some experts might doubt Taiwan's pride - national insurance system, treats money more than its nationals' health and lives.
  The lawmaker blasted (2021-6-9 news) what color the Health minister's heart is !   To learn further details about CovID-19 in Taiwan

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CovID Resilience Ranking, 2021-8-26
full data : https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/

Asian country ranking people covered by vaccine 3-month case fatality rate
pic.: No.1 "Taiwan CovID-19 comments" on Bing, Lycos, etc , 2021-9-6; No.1 "comment Taiwan CovID-19" on Ecosia of Germany, Dogpile, Metacrawler, INFO., Excite, etc, at 2021-9-2, 2021-8-30
Singapore 8 76.7 0.4%
UAE 15 82.7 0.2%
Hong Kong 18 47.7 0.9%
Saudi Arabia 19 51.1 1.2%
China 24 70.1 0%
S. Korea 26 37.3 0.3%
New Zealand 29 28.9 0%
Australia 31 34.2 0.5%
Japan 33 47.5 0.5%
Taiwan 41  21.7 7.6%

　

TAIWAN           VS.          USA,   Singapore,  Israel
The US Singapore Israel Taiwan
warns Americans over 60... not vaccinated, are at extreme risk.
(New York Times 2021-8-24)		 Singapore launched a campaign to persuade elderly vaccine holdouts  In Israel, aged 60 are first priority group, but in Taiwan they are the 10th (say last) priority ● Taiwan CDC  (2021-9-2): Plenty of opportunities were offered for older populations, now the opportunities will be moved to groups younger.  But the truth is millions of older adults kept awaiting their first BNT or Moderna shot from beginning. 
￭ NY Times, 2021-8-23: Critics say Taiwanese worry local vaccine which effectiveness and safety have not been proved ￭ Lots of local critiques against Taiwan's harboring local vaccine


Taiwan lacks vaccines R&D, and can't have excellent vaccines from the west with schedule behind 60~70 countries till Feb.  New York Times, 3-14-2021:  amid vaccine campaigns elsewhere. Taiwan officials have been slow to procure and distribute vaccines ...  China Times 2021-5-16: The number of Taipei's negative-pressure beds available is only 51 since CovID-19 major outbreak about 3 days ago.  United Daily, 2021-5-18, editorial (udn.com/news/story/7338/5465373?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2) : some Corona-virus infected patients can not have any ambulance for 2 days, Taipei gov. said all hospital-wards are full.  Next TV news, 2021-5-19: Taiwan's best hospital NTUH urges infected patients not to come its emergency room in that the capacity is full.   Some hospitals rejecting CovID patient leads to death ( e.g., UDN, 2021-5-19,  udn.com/news/story/120940/5468346,  TTV news youtube.com/watch?v=3i8D-p-aiKQ  ps: the gov. denied)  Many infected patients were asked to stay at home and have antipyetics to decrease symptoms, which might endanger healthy people.   Liberty Times, 2021-5-25: Some physicians of Taiwan's NTUH applied for long vacation to avoid curing CovID patients.  (health.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/3544601)     CTV news 2021-5-18: Taiwan's medical capacity is not enough for CovID-19... although, after the outbreak, Taiwan only added 1,000- infected CovID-19 patients (the number of infections, May 15 - 18 : 180, 206, 333, 240).   CTS morning news, 2021-5-26: Taipei city gov. says it will be regular for resident detected positive to quarantine at home, instead of hospital or health-care site.
　

Former medical chief 楊志良 warns (TVBS, 1-17-2021) epidemic prevention will fail if gov. continues to take strategy of political manipulation and double standard in favor of medical circle for voting.  Soon after a study published in the medical journal Lancet (Oct. 1, 2020) estimates the number of Taiwanese infected with CoronaVirus by July 2020 is 25 times more cases than Taiwan's official number.  Washington Post, 12-22-2020: Taiwan snaps world’s longest Covid-free streak after pilot infects local resident. (The loophole of Taiwan is pilots undergo a less strict three days of self-quarantine after each overseas trip) United Daily, editorial (12-24-2020) points out the myth of Taiwan's longest Covid-free streak has always been questioned because  (1) lots of tourists or foreign laborers were found infected while going through their country's immigration (2) lots of foreign art-performers and laborers were found infected after 14 days home quarantine in Taiwan.  These let us know there indeed are "mild CovID-19 spread in some corners of our communities " (輕症傳播), people with coronavirus infections have no or mild symptoms.  Fortunately everyone in Taiwan wearing masks stops serious situation. (https://udn.com/news/story/7338/5117298?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2 )  ABC News (12-15-2020) reported Taiwan has set a goal to vaccinate only 60% of its population with a COVID-19 vaccine (abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/latest-korea-opening-dozens-free-virus-test-sites-74710084 ).  But VOA, LTN, 12-25-2020 (news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3391701) advise 70% of a country's population should have antibody or must to take vaccinate.   Till Feb., 2021, Taiwan's health system has not collapsed under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, most hospitals are functional, severe and intractable patients remained same number, but some departments - Emergency, Pediatrics, Dentistry, ENT, Rehabilitation treatment were affected between Feb. and May 2020, some hospitals' income falls short of expenditure. (tw.appledaily.com/forum/20210221/LK57ZDY4FJHZVK3THEXEZWNY5U/ 李偉強 )

Professor 楊哲銘 on Apple Daily (12-14-2020) says stigmatization and discrimination of diseases is bad for Taiwan's National Insurance systems.  The laws (e.g., Communicable Disease Control Act, HIV Infection Control & Patient Rights Protection Act ) to protect and respect the dignity and the legal rights of the infected obviously are useless.  US (state dept.) Country Reports on Human Rights practices,  3-11-2020: There was reported discrimination, including employment discrimination, against persons with HIV/AIDS.

★

On the other hand, Washington Post at 3-1-2019 "An American got sick in Taiwan.  He came back with a tale of the ‘horrors of socialized medicine" named Taiwan's health-care system "socialized medicine", Taiwan is less wealthy than the US, yet it spends less and gets more,  the amount costs for a course of Harvoni treatment and C-section is  $32,114 and $15,106 respectively in the Us, but $2,132 and $1,404 in Taiwan.   An American in Taiwan getting stomach flu was checked by MD within 20 minutes of his arrival  (ref. to https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/01/an-american-got-sick-taiwan-he-came-back-with-tale-horrors-socialized-medicine/)  , although the avg. percentage of patients taking 48 hours in emergency room of NTUH awaiting being hospitalized in 2018 is 7.9%, CVA patient may take 24 hours.  Formosa TV news reported at 2-27-2019 that patients usually take 5~7 days or even nearly half month in emergency room of NTUH awaiting being hospitalized.  The University of Texas ― M.D. Anderson cancer center professor Euishin Edmund Kim, M.D. urged Korean people don't waste their energy flying to the US for medical treatment, because Korea's medical tech. is as good as any other country's.   An article (Apple Daily, Taiwan, 6-22-2015) by Taiwan's Veterans General Hospital physician Dr. Ton (唐宗詠) points out that so many Taiwanese expatriates living abroad (with permanent resident card) and/or  foreign citizens of Taiwanese origin flied a long way back to Taiwan for medical treatment. ――  Taiwan's medical-insurance system costs them much less than that in other countries, e.g.,  the price for a plaster cast in USA  almost equals one month salary of a Taiwanese orthopaedics resident-physician, so, some Taiwanese or Taiwanese American, etc, would rather bear the pain caused by their illness and long-distance trip to save lots of their money. http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20150622/633042/  (包山包海包全球的台灣健保)    The Liberty Times (5-5-2019) : The number of foreign patients coming Taiwan for treatment etc hits new high, 110 thousands more than that of the previous year.

Taiwan's medical & health performance was so successful (e.g. life expectancy, infant mortality and maternal mortality, are better than U.S., although we spent only one-quarter of USD (PPP) in health expenditure.) that former leader of health government, Dr. Ye Ching-chuan, was invited to testify at an US senate committee hearing on this issue  (http://blog.udn.com/yestaipei/18685477) .  An article by China Medical University (Taiwan) Professor Ma (馬文隆)  stated Taiwanese studies on liver cancer lead the world in the past   (http://gicm.cmu.edu.tw/adv.html )  also proves Taiwan's medical tech. is as good as most countries in the world.  

◆

However, United Daily (經濟日報) editorial, 6-25-2020: The financial situation of Taiwan's healthcare system has recently deteriorated, the govt. may need to increased greatly Taiwanese insurance fee.  United Daily 6-24-2020: National Taiwan University professor 薛承泰: Taiwan's national health insurance buries 'land mines' or 'time bombs' such as lower birth rate and aging society,  some room inside the system for playing tricks, the difference between insurance rate and benefit payment, etc may resulting in consequences.  Taiwan's Medical and Health Minister (李伯璋) regards increasing national insurance fee as a political issue which is beyond his authority, instead, he focuses on reducing expenditure. United Daily, 10-9-2020 (udn.com/news/story/7266/4923388): former medical deputy chief criticized reducing expenditure by tracking duplicate examinations etc fails to solve big problem, the government has not dealt with the issue of low diagnostic & operation fee, low drug price, low ward fee and low nursing care fee for 25 years, to make Taiwan's hospitals a "sweat factory", the hospitalizing patients even need to be taken care by their family members or illegal foreign workers.  The China Times, 10-30-2020 (chinatimes.com/opinion/20201030000025-262115?chdtv): Taiwan's National Insurance is in "a  state of many diseases".  The government supposes to increase everyone's insurance fee, but the serious problem of nation's low pay might easily stir a strong backlash.  Taiwan loves to use National Insurance as a great international propaganda material, but, the ruling party actually has already treated the issue as a "hot potato", and hence the snow-ball has become bigger and bigger. 

Bloomberg, 12-18-2020
country Health Care Cost

　

GDP%

 Health Care Cost


per capita
US 17.1 10246
Swiss 12.3 9956
Cuba 11.7 988
France 11.3 4380
Germany 11.2 5033
Sweden 11 5905
Japan 10.9 4169
Canada 10.6 4755
Norway 10.4 7936
Austria 10.4 4940
Belgium 10.3 4507
Nederland 10.1 4911
Denmark 10.1 5800
UK 9.6 3859
Brasil 9.5 929
Australia 9.2 5332
Finland 9.2 4206
NZ 9.2 3937
Argentina 9.1 1325
Portugal 9.0 1908
Chile 9.0 1382
Spain 8.9 2506
Italy 8.8 2840
Iran 8.7 475
Serbia 8.4 529
Ecuador 8.3 518
Lebanon 8.2 719
Greece 8.0 1517
Korea 7.6 2283
Israel 7.4 3145
Costa Rica 7.3 869
Ireland 7.2 4977
Czech 7.2 1476
Columbia 7.2 459
Hungary 6.9 981
Paraguay 6.7 381
Slovakia 6.7 1186
Taiwan 6.6 1550
Poland 6.5 907

Apple Daily 7-17-2019: Taiwan's healthcare system is on the edge of bankruptcy in 2026, the government's allocation of funds for urgent need is no more than curing the symptom instead of curing the disease.  Next TV news (5-25-2019, 20:44, 壹新聞  壹電視 ) reported that Taiwan government kept adjusting the price of more and more drugs to cover the deficit of medical insurance system, which resulted in more and more brand drugs withdrawing from Taiwan (e.g., TIENAM) , because cheap-price generic drugs made in Taiwan are not as curative effective as brand drugs, Physicians worry there's no good medicines for patients ....  Besides, Apple Daily (6-4-2017): Taiwan medical service's critical problem ―― Preventive Health-Care service is behind.   The China Times, (7-4-2017) : "patients centered" is nothing but a slogan.   Apple Daily, 11-10-2020: It's a reality in today's Taiwan that the omniscient government absolutely manipulate each national's personal data which were collected all the time since he(she) was born, e.g., each person's health & medical data/information was forced without agreement of the party to be opened on purpose of business and academic use(澄社).

★
Furthermore,
 ●  Guardian (UK), 10-31-2020: Now, Taipei's people browse, busk and greet each other with handshakes and hugs. It feels normal.  However, Taiwan has already "exported" dozens COVID-19 infected cases to a number of foreign countries, not sure yet who should be responsible for this, according to United Daily, editorial, 10-31-2020. https://udn.com/news/story/7338/4977422?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

● New York Post  4-25-2020 : Taiwan deals with CovID-19 with "a lot more authoritarian.", "almost everyone is tracked.".  Taiwanese govt. responded at 4-28-2020 that Taiwanese would like to cooperate with our policy.  But the truth is Taiwan's "Big Brother" already sneaked into numerous families in the name of  Epidemic Prevention, by an injunction violating Tort Law and domineering over Constitution (凌駕憲法的侵權禁令) , without having noticed all nationals, in accordance with United Daily, editorial at 5-7-2020.   The ironic thing is after lifting Coronavirus Lockdown, Japan doesn't trust Taiwan's Epidemic Prevention, and has not put "democratic" Taiwan on their welcome list, many other countries did same thing to Taiwan.  The China Times, editorial (6-6-2020, 6-25-2020) analyzed one main reason is Taiwan rejects mass testing, even small-scale testing, the number of test per million people is 3000+, ranked world No. 138, about same level as that of African countries, even African Luanda tested double number of Taiwan's.  A famous National Taiwan University M.D. expert endorsed for Taiwan's policy :   there's no any CovID-19 in Taiwan, 3 weeks later, a Japanese girl staying Taiwan for 4 months was detected positive in Japan's airport.   Therefore, those free flow of information can be suspicious and may endanger the entire world.  United Daily 7-16-2020: To keep good record,  Taiwan takes 'ostrich' strategy (avoid mass testing). According to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the new coronavirus may never show symptoms or fall ill — but can still transmit the illness to others (4-15-2020, Business Insider). Bill Gates in the New England Journal of Medicine: The prevalence of asymptomatic transmission doesn't bode well for global containment efforts.  All studies (CNBC 5-7-2020, Singapore's Blackbox Research and Toluna, Forbes 6-5-2020, 4-16-2020: The Deep Knowledge Group) concluded China is better than Taiwan on CovID-19 safety countries rankings.  Apple Daily 7-8-2020:  expert (中央研究院研究員何美鄉) warned that many CovID-19 infected people without symptom in Taiwan.

●  The China Times, editorial (6-6-2020) : world don't trust Taiwan's Epidemic Prevention achievement  ――  Although Japan, Greece, Australia, New Zealand lifted Its Coronavirus Lockdown, their tourist-welcome-list includes Korea, China, but not Taiwan.  Since the very beginning Taiwan rejects mass testing, even small-scale testing,  the percentage (the number of test per million people is 3000+, ) was ranked world No. 138.   But according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the new coronavirus may never show symptoms or fall ill — but can still transmit the illness to others (4-15-2020, Business Insider).  Bill Gates in the New England Journal of Medicine: The prevalence of asymptomatic transmission doesn't bode well for global containment efforts.  Taiwan Yahoo News (8-6-2020, news.yahoo.com/自家人開第一槍何志偉逆時中入境一律篩檢-002543455.html) reported even ruling party's lawmaker now urges giving testing to all visitors going thru immigration.
 ● Taiwan News 6-26-2020, United Daily 6-27-2020: Following news that a Japanese student tested positive for coronavirus after returning from southern Taiwan on Wednesday (June 24), many Taiwanese expressed concerns over a potential undetected community cluster. Voices have also begun to surge from communities calling for general virus testing for all individuals entering the island country.  Taiwan CECC insists general virus testing unnecessary ... UDN 7-16-2020:  the only means govt. got are containment and wearing mask.  United Daily 6-30-2020 editorial: Taiwanese experts suggesting general testing were attacked by internet army for that reason.

● The China Times 6-25-2020 editorial: Taiwan has no same capacity and experience as Beijing does to face something serious, it will be horrible in case CovID-19 epidemic break out.  https://www.chinatimes.com/opinion/20200624003961-262101?chdtv

● Apple Daily (蘋果日報, 4-15-2019), United Daily (聯合報, 4-14-2019) ... : Going easy route, lacking of ethics, MDs advised using Da Vinci for even a minor operation,  38 hospitals were suspected of making false report about Da Vinci surgery to illegally obtain benefits from national insurance up to NTD 3.5 billion.

● The Liberty Times, (9-29-2018) : Taipei mayor Ko: Taiwan's medical services all aim for profit, the problem of politics there is everyone tells right from wrong, but no one wants to do the right thing.   In Taiwan, the better medical knowledge, the less profit ― M.D.s curing patient of disease by simpler methods can not make good money, instead, they tried to convince you to do Hemodialysis, Positive airway pressure, ... or even to stay in intensive care unit (ICU) ...  LTN 11-27-'15: medical problem is political problem, the whole medical systems were manipulated by mega-corporation, and no one wants to make any change ...  The Liberty Times (LTN) 11-26-'15: Taipei mayor Ko said physicians or medical Doctors of Taiwan just don't speak the truth, otherwise they will be killed, or be accused...  Ko doesn't like to join even the most important meetings of National Taiwan University Hospital ―― in there, either "paper over the cracks" or taking chance to struggle each other.

● The China Times, (7-4-2017) : former leader of Taiwan University Hospital criticized that many hospitals' management is only for profit-making, hospital managers should win by virtue, physicians should advance their knowledge and tech. all the time, otherwise "patients centered" is nothing but a slogan.  

● Apple Daily, (8-18-2018): "The rich see Doctors, the poor enter grave (有錢看病、沒錢等死)"? / former medical gov. leader 楊志良。  Popular TV star 白冰冰 said (June 2017) : "The rich cut in a queue to see Doctors, the poor are on the way to die (有錢免排、無錢等埋)" !   

● United Daily News (9-28-2018): <我們都是病友>: ... The administration and part of Taiwan's medical circle have not treated patients' rights as central issue (病人為中心)   / 楊志良。

●  Apple Daily, 12-30-2017: Amending the law of Taiwan's medical services is criticized as "Decriminalization".   Taiwan's medical-service environment is getting worse (台灣醫院免責? 醫療環境再惡化).  Patients in Taiwan will be difficult to put to the proof in their legal cases.

● United Daily News (5-30-2017): The biggest problem of Taiwan's medical care is too short diagnostic time, without a completed examination in most cases, usually, patients are already in serious condition when symptom became clear. / Dr. Huang D.F., president of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center.
 ● Apple Daily (6-4-2017): Taiwan's critical problem ―― Preventive Health-Care service is behind. / former medical gov leader Young (楊志良).

● A famous M.D., Hsu or Xu Da-Fu (許達夫)'s book "Exposing the truth of modern medical circle in Taiwan - misdiagnosis & medical errors" ("誤診誤醫", published by the China Times, 2012) criticizes :
   (1) Taiwan's hospitals focus on profit/benefit and ignore patients' rights (in Ch.1 "Taiwan's medical system is ill")   ―   The whole medical circle already went the wrong route, it gonna be too late if most influential and enthusiastic persons do not spend efforts on completely changing our medical education to boot physicians' medical spirits.
   (2) Medical students only learn Pathology and the way how their professors doing malicious competition and internal struggle for the power and money, and lack of Ethics knowledge as well as Humanism quality.○

●  Taipei City mayor Ko : Taiwan has not established a culture of honesty, each time being in National Taiwan University Hospital's meeting, the 1st thing cross mind always is "who performed the operation (surgery) ?", M.D.s always take it personally ... ( '無法真正做到對事不對人')  /  buzzorange.com/2015/05/29 " The phony culture in Taipei City Hall - 整個社會都在說謊？！柯文哲揭露市府假面文化" http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20170611002397-260407

　

　

  <

top rankings on US Yahoo, Bing, Google, Euro. MetaGER.de, Taiwan's Yahoo, etc, tests in  2019 ~present

　

pic. : This websites group was ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at  2-12-2021 

　

　

　

　

Bloomberg, 12-18-2020
country Health Care Cost

　

GDP%

 Health Care Cost


per capita
US 17.1 10246
Swiss 12.3 9956
Cuba 11.7 988
France 11.3 4380
Germany 11.2 5033
Sweden 11 5905
Japan 10.9 4169
Canada 10.6 4755
Norway 10.4 7936
Austria 10.4 4940
Belgium 10.3 4507
Nederland 10.1 4911
Denmark 10.1 5800
UK 9.6 3859
Brasil 9.5 929
Australia 9.2 5332
Finland 9.2 4206
NZ 9.2 3937
Argentina 9.1 1325
Portugal 9.0 1908
Chile 9.0 1382
Spain 8.9 2506
Italy 8.8 2840
Iran 8.7 475
Serbia 8.4 529
Ecuador 8.3 518
Lebanon 8.2 719
Greece 8.0 1517
Korea 7.6 2283
Israel 7.4 3145
Costa Rica 7.3 869
Ireland 7.2 4977
Czech 7.2 1476
Columbia 7.2 459
Hungary 6.9 981
Paraguay 6.7 381
Slovakia 6.7 1186
Taiwan 6.6 1550
Poland 6.5 907
　
Bloomberg, 12-18-2020
life expectancy 年齡
HK 84.93
Japan 84.21
Swiss 83.75
Spain 83.43
Italy 83.35
Singapore 83.15
Israel 82.80
Norway 82.76
Australia 82.75
France  82.72
S Korea 82.63
Sweden 82.56
Ireland 82.26
Canada 81.95
NZ 81.86
Nederland 81.81
Greece 81.79
Finland 81.73
Austria  81.69
Belgium 81.60
Portugal 81.32
UK 81.26
Denmark 80.95
Germany 80.89
Taiwan 80.69
Costa Rica 80.10
Chile 80.04

　

　

 　

　

　

　

　 　

     Finance Yahoo, 12-30-2020 (finance.yahoo.com/news/retire-taiwan-costs-visas-more-215449948.html ):       Taiwan ranks 11th globally in the healthcare efficiency index of Knoema.com, and Numbeo ranks the nation’s healthcare system as the best in the world.

A legal resident of is eligible for the NHI program. It includes coverage for inpatient and outpatient care, prescription drugs, dental care (excluding orthodontics and prosthodontics) and more. Taiwan doesn’t offer free healthcare for expats, but payments will come in the form of copayments. Usually, you can expect to pay 10% to 20% of treatment. You may also have to pay out-of-pocket costs if you choose any other healthcare treatment outside of the NHI coverage...

 　
　 to fill the coverage gap, you may have to purchase private Taiwan expat healthcare insurance. Additionally, it can take a few months to complete the NHI registration ...

　

 　

　

　

　

        

pic. left : No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on Baidu of China ,  2021-5-31, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 2-12-2021;

pic. right: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on  Baidu of China , 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 2-12-2021

　

　

　

pic. above: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Webcrawler , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27,  2021-4-10,  3-10-2021, 8-17-2020

　

　

　

　

  

pic. left: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Lycos , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27,  2021-4-10,  3-10-2021, 8-17-2020; pic.: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Excite , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020

　

　

　

　

      

pic. left: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on ekoru (New Zealand) , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020; pic.: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Dogpile , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020

　

　

　

　

 pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Yahoo Taiwan, 2021-4-10, No. 1 on Yahoo Japan , 3-10-2021 

　

　

　

　

　

pic. : This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at   1-16-2021, 12-30-2020, 7-31-2020;

　

　

　

pic. above: The sites-group was ranked No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on US Google , 1-1-2021, 12-30-2020

　

　

　

            

pic. left: No.1  "評論台灣醫院"(comment hospitals in Taiwan) on google,  2021-5-5, 2021-4-26,  2021-4-18, 3-11-2021, pic. right: No.1  "評論台灣醫院"(comment Taiwan hospitals) on google, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27

　

　

　

pic. above: No.1 "comment Taiwan hospitals " on US Google , 11-28-2020,  Nov. 6, 2020, 9-16-2020, 8-26-2020, 7-31-2020, 6-1-2020

　

　

　

　

pic. : This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  test at   6-30-2020, 6-1-2020, 1-20-2020

　

　

　

pic. : This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  test at   11-11-2019

　

　

        

pic. : This websites group is ranked No.1 on Baidu of China by keyword "comment Taiwan hospitals"  at  2021-8-20, 2021-8-8, 10-24-2019.

 pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on ASK , 3-10-2021 

　

　

           

pic. left : This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Bing by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  at  10-18-2019, 7-4-2019,  5-19-2019; 
pic. right : This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Bing  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  at  10-18-2019,  7-4-2019, 5-19-2019

　

　

　
　

★ ◎★

   HOT !       Taiwan travel        food       Taiwan hard power       soft power       democracy      Intro to Taiwan       Taiwan personality      bully      persecution
　

      No.1 rankings on the net   !

★
★1.   serious Corruption - ready to pay a bribe?

　

According to <Transparency International> studies ( July 9, 2013), "Have you or anyone in your household paid a bribe to one of these 8 services in the last 12 months?"
 Taiwanese people think the institution needed to be paid bribery most is judiciary system, second is Taiwan's medical and health services, the number of Taiwanese paying a bribe is higher than global average. ( Apple Daily 7-10-2013,http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20130710/35139300/ )
 ◎
<Transparency International> of Germany also found the percentage(%) of Taiwanese respondents who felt medical and health services were one of corrupt/extremely corrupt institutions in this country/territory is 47%. 

　

CNA (Taiwan), 4-8-2021: The president of Taiwan Adventist General Hospital was involved in national insurance fraud case. cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202104080203.aspx  The Liberty Times (1-10-2017): The hospital M.D. got brokerage or kickback in various forms -  e.g., money, presents/gifts, joining international seminar or conference sponsored by medicine business, or money that contributed to some foundations ... It's a complicated Symbiotic relationship (benefit each other).

　

PS

 　
　 ◆ Apple Daily (蘋果日報, 4-15-2019), United Daily (聯合報, 4-14-2019) ... : Going easy route, lacking of ethics,  38 hospitals were suspected of making false report about Da Vinci surgery to illegally obtain benefits from national insurance up to NTD 3.5 billion.

◆ Apple Daily (蘋果日報, 12-12-2019, headline news), United Daily (聯合報, 12-12-2019) ... : 6 hospitals used fake accounts to apply insurance overpayments ( among them, 北市聯醫 applied for NT55,000 thousands,  by in total 32000 cases, most in Taiwan history...) from the government.   

　

◆   United Daily News  (聯合報), 7-12-2019: Control Yuan (gov.) corrects National Taiwan University Hospital for taking a passive, negative attitude toward a national insurance scam (by NTUH physician) and not checking carefully a wider range of this issue, not taking any measure to prevent this sort things from happening again, since the suite case was under investigations, the hospital long term was careless of administration and controls so that the suspect can signed fake documents for making illegal money.   NTUH expressed it's done by the MD himself and the hospital will review all related procedures. (brief, for precise meaning pls. see the pic. above)

　

pic.: Control Yuan (gov.) corrected National Taiwan University Hospital / UDN 2019

　

　

　

　

◆ pic.: 東森電視; Global News TV - 寰宇綜合, 3-21-2018, 6:40 pm "醫師好辣" - "unspoken secrets in Taiwan's operation rooms":  Patients usually prefer the first operation in each day, this happened that 3 patients all paid bribery to the famous surgeons for having the 1st operation, and all of them had it ......

　

◆ The finding of the 2013 Global Corruption Barometer (GCB),  ( the Gallup Poll to interview 114,000 people in 107 countries all over the world): 36% of  people (surveyed in TW) who had used any of eight government services in the past year had paid a bribe (the number is higher than global average).    <NOWnews> , (7.10.2013)–  Taiwan is the 18th worst corruption country in 95 countries surveyed. (重度貪污國家第18名)  <Apple Daily> (7.11.2013): Apple daily's survey found 75.07% Taiwanese people think corruption in Taiwan is actually worse than GCB's report.

　

◆ <Transparency International> , Taiwan,   Dec 9, '05
     Taiwan's Corruption Index : medical 32%
     ps: this proved Taiwanese medical service is a long lasting rotten circle.

　

◆

     National Health Insurance committee members think Taiwan's Admin. Department treat  National Health Insurance as their own gold-mine or pocket money - withdraw it as much as possible (成了自己的金庫 予取予求)

　

◎★

 ★2.  worse Medicine

       Next TV news (5-25-2019, 20:44 / 壹新聞  壹電視) reported that Taiwan government kept adjusting the price of more and more drugs to cover the deficit of medical insurance system, which resulted in more and more international brand drugs withdrawing from Taiwanese market (e.g., TIENAM) .   Behind the slogan "the price of medicines of Taiwan is cheapest in the world" is the cheap-price generic drugs made in Taiwan are not as curative effective as brand drugs, because Taiwan's drug companies don't insist on strict quality control on every process, and will not "tighten nerves" after having official permissions from the government.   Physicians worry there's no good medicines for patients ...  In April 2019, Taiwan government continued to adjust the price of 7470 items of medicines, furthermore, the hospitals kept haggling with the drug companies (e.g., the gov. declares certain drug NTD10, the hospitals cut it down to NTD 7 ), the price difference became main profit for the hospitals... ( brief )

       The Apple Daily (6-30-2018): Medicine (drug store) is a criminal business for their entire life.
       The Apple Daily (2-20-2016, Prime News): according to clinical experiences, many generic drugs are not as effective as brand drugs...
       TVBS news reported at 7-15-2015 that (http://news.tvbs.com.tw/life/news-608090/) in order to maximize the profit,  Taiwanese hospitals always cut down the price while purchasing medicines from pharmaceutical factories, this results in international brand drug companies are/were not willing to sell their brand-name medicines to Taiwan, therefore, the quality of prescription medicines in Taiwan is from bad to worse (用藥品質越來越差) .   Former Minister of Health (楊志良) criticized that Taiwanese hospitals do not like to improve medical employee's (M.D.s and nurses) welfare by using their surplus profit.   Many hospitals run their business by "medicine to cover medical" strategy, which is, earning profit by medicine price differences to cover hospital's expenses.   If things go on this way, Taiwanese patients will not have good brand-name medicines even being willing to pay on own dimes in the future, more and more international drug companies may pull back from Taiwan's market for unreasonable high medicine price disparities.  Apple Daily of Taiwan reported at 6-22-2015 that Taiwan's hospitals already used medicines made in Taiwan to replace int'l brand stuffs, and then, recently even don't like to buy some local's medicines (最近甚至連台廠藥都做不下去), till now, money can't buy some important antibiotic medicines.

        The United Daily (9-1-2015)'s article "medicine is cheaper than candy" (by 楊志良):  Almost all International pharmaceutical factories/companies had already withdrawn their business from Taiwan many years ago, Those companies having brand drugs within term of a patent show no interests in Taiwan's market,  This "Black Hole" resulted in "bad medicines/drugs drive out good"...

        The United Daily, the Apple Daily (9-3-2015, Prime News):  Taiwanese government's new policy - patients paying the part not covered by NHI use brand drugs, is criticized as creating a "class distinctions" (class antagonism), but some cases found generic drugs are not as effective as brand drugs, UDN also mentions medical government lacks of ability to admin. the bigger and bigger drugs/medical device market paid at patient's own expense...
 ★

　

news

 ◆ Hinet  & 台灣新生報 news : Taiwanese prosecutor do not file prosecution against Huang (秀傳醫療體系總裁黃明和) for suspicious having earned huge amount of medicine price differences by establishing an empty-shell company.

◎

　

　


　

　

 　
pic. above: Medical human rights in Taiwan

pic. above: one surgeon performs
 many operations simultaneously - happened quite often in Taiwan
   Dr.Xu's  book   / 
by The China Times 

　

　

　

◎★

　

　

★3.  Surgery

United Daily (聯合報, headline news, 5-11-2019):  unspoken secrets inside operation rooms: Many hospitals reused expensive expendables, some smaller hospitals reused cheap expendables, like medical gauze, suture, etc, the patients under general anesthesia knew nothing and hence were exposed the risk of infection.
United Daily (聯合報,  10-7-2019): 70,000 pieces of illegal medical appliances (TAD, plate of bone) were sold to 200 hospitals/clinics ...

Apple Daily (9-18-2017) reported that "fake surgery" (substitute-surgeon operates illegally) did happen in Chang Gung Mem. Hospital, Taiwan.

Apple Daily (5-13-2015) reported that Taiwanese people have an "Obsession" ―  famous is best, hence, an evil trend "one surgeon performs many operations simultaneously" (「跳台開刀」) prevails, which is a long-lasting cooperate module  ――  a best-known surgeon-physician walks and looks around several operating tables in different operation rooms (all are in his name), and selects a major one to perform a most important part of that surgical procedure, the rest are taken over by 'unknown or less famous' physicians.   (http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150513/36547459/)

A famous M.D., Hsu or Xu Da-Fu (許達夫)'s book "Exposing the truth of modern medical circle in Taiwan - misdiagnosis & medical errors" ("誤診誤醫", published by the China Times, 2012) also criticized this by a real example, a patient complained : the substituted surgeon was not the one on the agreement document with patient's and his in-charge physician's signatures, that substituted doctor even did not know which part needed to be performed operation when he was there in the surgical suite, after the surgery, the patient's wound has become inflamed... Dr. Xu explained this sort of stories indeed happened frequently (經常發生) in today's hospitals, particularly, in major hospitals, because each best-known medical doctor has many patients, it's hard for the doctor to take care of everyone, hence, substituted surgeons doing operations for best-known M.D.s is quite often (常見), particularly, for those famous physicians in charge also working as teachers, lots of things keep them very busy.   Dr. Xu suggested every patient must keeps in mind who is your M.D. in charge, and if you see a substituted doctor showing up in surgical suite, just refuse him to do the operation, unless you are in an emergent situation. 

★

　

● 東森電視; Global News TV - 寰宇綜合, 3-21-2018, 6:40 pm  <unspoken secrets in Taiwan's operation room> "醫師好辣 - 開刀房不告訴你的事", discussed the phenomenon ―  "one Doctor performs several operations at the same time", and  small Doctors perform operations for top Doctors without notifying patients

　

Full text : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT2p7b4ZTQg
pic. left: In medical centers or large hospitals, you may gave surgery by "students",  in small hospital, you may have operation by "master teachers" .
pic. left: It's very possible that resident-Doctors (sometimes, or even CR  MD) replaced top MD to perform operations without notifying patients.
pic. left: The larger hospitals, the more possible small MDs do operations for top MDs .
pic. left: even in training-purpose cases,  quite many "teacher" MDs still leave operation suites.
pic. left: It was this way years ago, security guards did operation, MDs became their "assistant".

　

 ● Apple Daily ( 蘋果日報 5-13-2015) reported that a famous physician (ranking top 100 in Business Weekly) in Taiwan's Taichung Veterans General Hospital performed 5 operations at same time, that caused a woman's death and his new  name - suspicious crime of fraud. (http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150513/36547449/)

(中榮名醫同時五台刀 涉詐欺  害婦送命 疑沒進開刀房也領獎金 / 

廉政署鴨子划水蒐證數月後，發現《商業周刊》百大良醫沈男 兩年內疑有十件跳台開刀情況)

　

　

★

◎★◎★

★4. Bad privacy status in Taiwan's hospitals
      ◆ The Liberty Times, 3-15-2021 (news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/3467139):  5 Nurses took pictures of the female patients’ private parts on hospital operation room, and added some funny remarks, then uploaded them to the online social media IG, ignoring Article 72 of the "Medical Law" (護理人員行為可能涉違反「醫療法」第72條不得無故洩漏病人病情及健康資訊，可處5萬至25萬罰鍰；也恐涉違反「護理人員法」28條護理人員不得洩漏他人秘密，可罰6000元至3萬元)
       ◆ The China Times, 7-3-2017: Taiwan's regulations for patients' privacy is almost no legal effect, hospitals don't take it serious.  e.g., a 30 years old female patient was hospitalized in a very famous hospital 榮總, after she striped her clothes for MD's diagnosis, more than 10 male and female physicians came in, one student (probably intern) took picture by cell phone, the patient can't stand all these and burst out crying .....
     ◆ The United Daily News (聯合新聞) 1-3-2017 <Where's Taiwan's medical ethics ?>  : Leaking patients' medical records is a normal social behaviour in Taiwan - In Taiwan, journalists are not used to respect patients' privacy... our hospitals' members do not know very clearly the principle of protecting patients' privacy...(黃達夫)
       ◆ Apple Daily (3-5-2017): A large hospital's nurse took a picture of the patient without any permission during brain operation in surgical suite and then spread that photo through Instagram.  That nurse also remarked "It's so exciting to see human's brain!".

     ◆ Apple Daily (9-28-2019): about 3 years ago, communist Chinese pro. hackers already broke in Taiwan's top hospitals' computer systems (NTUH, 榮總, etc) and stole all patients' medical records ...

　

　 　

　

　
　 pic.: United Daily News (1-3-2017)

　

◎★
★5.  Ethics, Ethics,  Ethics

      
      Apple Daily , 11-9-2020:  a physical therapist​ of Cheng-Hsin General Hospital (Taipei 振興醫院), a famous hospital, committed a crime of sexual harassment (made a pass at her private part, etc) while doing massage upon a female patient. tw.appledaily.com/local/20201109/6J43CZ653VBS3PZZKDBA4FK3XA/
      United Daily, 1-12-2020, editorial opinion: A Taiwanese M.D. gave drugs causing drowsiness to whoever (patient) supports different political party's presidential election candidate.
      According to the book, < Disease and society ― Taiwan searches its conscience from experiences during SARS crisis>  (book title : <疫病與社會：台灣歷經SARS風暴之醫學與人文反省 >, author/ 蔡甫昌、江宜樺(former Prime Minster)etc,  Publisher/ National Taiwan University, Medical School,  Sept. 2012 )

     ◆   Many medical school students' parents scared SARS and ignored the situation that insufficient numbers of doctors confronting SARS,  hence, those parents pressed the government to pull 300 intern students out of hospital by reporting "something" to the Control Yuan that Educational government already neglected its duty.
       ◆  Some state hospital paused emergency and regular medical services (門診), about 1/3 clinics there stopped their services by all kinds of "reasons" you can imagine.  124 nurses in a medical center in Southern Taiwan refused to take care of SARS patients and then resigned, some M.D.s also resigned for the same reason.
       ◆  Some medical center found hospital infection and  took "block & isolate " strategy, the next day more and more patients at ward escaped from that hospital, Taiwanese government received reports from all major medical centers in Northern, Central, Southern Taiwan, the hospital president,  and Infection Control directors concealed SARS outbreak within the hospital to avoid losing face, avoid dropping profit-performance, and/or avoid being sealed off the hospital,  this serious situations became major cause that Taiwan's SARS continued to spread larger and larger.     
       ◆  The work ethics, concealing SARS outbreak, delaying reporting to center government or rejecting SARS patients to avoid profiting worse are the most important reasons resulting in hospital onset of infection and spreading SARS from bad to worse in Taiwan. 

　

　

  ◆ Mass media reported a few years ago that very few NTU medical students like to take medical-ethics sort course, although Medical educators are increasingly stressing the importance of training in the ethical issues encountered in clinical practice ( National ChenKun University -  http://ped.hosp.ncku.edu.tw/chinese/xoops/modules/tinyd/index.php?id=11).  

　

◆  Taiwanese personality/character, pls click for details... No.1 ranking on google for a long time!

　

★

★6.  Physicians、Politics、society
     ●  United Daily, 1-12-2020, editorial opinion: During presidential election campaign, some citizen supporting different political party intended to use NTUH rest-room but was driven out by NTU medical college student.   

     ●   FTV(民視)<Taiwan History(台灣演義)> 4-16-2017 , "Taiwan University Medical School"  (for details pls ref to youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf2VRok0uRO2bH10tnVg9rWCIGeddXcSk)

              

National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH)●  

●  Taiwan University Hospital had major medical achievements, including Asian No.1 records

 　

Taiwan physicians social status became lower

　

●  Taiwanese physicians' social status is not as good as before

(After National Health Insurance putting into effect,  Taiwanese people's consciousness rises, and usually make treatment requests to their M.D.,.. resulting in Physician-Patient relationship under tension)

   
         ●    ●   "High physicians cure the nation" / Former NTU dean Lee (李鎮源) urged freedom of expression and human rights in Nation's Day of '91, and called physicians together, eventually, only 50- out of 1000+ NTUH physicians joined that protest.   Reports pointed out Taiwanese physicians're afraid of speaking freely which may damages their future, since so many elites were killed in 228 political event, some victims got serious consequences for sort of minor mistakes, all these experiences and perspective deep rooted in some medical people's mind, and became motive to fight back.  .    

　

●  Taiwan University Medical School lacks humanism thoughts

(Taiwan's current social value system is rapidly changing the culture in medical circle  / Dean of NTU medical school (張上淳) advised that
always keep in mind a love-based, "patient-centered", and humanistic-care thinking  )
　 　

★

   

Taiwan's high CovID-19 death rate - why ??

Taiwan's CovID-10 recovery rate and death rate both are worse than Asia average and world average...

SCMP, 2021-6-9,  scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3136609/coronavirus-critics-ask-why-taiwans-death-rate-higher-global:  Taiwan has a fatality-per-infection rate of 2.78 per cent (jumps to 4.2 % at 6-23) compared with global average 2.14 per cent.  critics ask why Taiwan’s death rate is higher than the global pandemic average ?
Taiwanese government's official answer is mainly because of the acute rise in cases in the past month and because many patients had pre-existing chronic diseases。 CDC at 2021-6-25 changed its phrase and said that's because aged 60+ elders stand for 90% deaths.  
However, the real causes probably are  ... most elders are assigned to be low priority group by the gov. and have not got vaccinated (by contrast, 寰宇 news, 2021-6-25: more than half of Japanese elders aged 65+ got it already, EU urged speeding it up to fight corona-virus variant )
　

◆◆shortage of vaccines  /   elders are lower priority group in waiting line