The young girl who was refused entry to a series of Taipei hospitals after being severely injured by her abusive father will be declared brain-dead today, medical officials said yesterday.
Executive deputy superintendent Tung Jui-lung (
Chiu had been severely beaten by her father before being forced to travel to Taichung for treatment after being turned away at the Municipal Jen Ai Hospital and other Taipei City hospitals.
The resulting uproar triggered an investigation into why Chiu was refused treatment when there were sufficient beds in the hospitals.
The Department of Health declared on Friday that it would make changes to a national system for patient transfers.
The new system is expected to take effect in June.
After discussions with various hospital and emergency surgical experts on Friday, the department decided that it would establish six medical-care sectors.
Within each sector, hospitals will be classified according to a three-point scale based on medical-care capability.
In the new system, patients needing emergency care must be accepted by "grade one" hospitals in the sector and cannot be transferred to hospitals in other sectors.
In the event of a large-scale medical emergency, however, patients will be transferred to hospitals between sectors as needed via the national Emergency Operations Center.
The six sectors will be aligned with the nation's six national health insurance divisions: the Taipei region, including Taipei City, Taipei County and Ilan; the northern region, including greater Hsinchu and Miaoli counties; the central region, including greater Taichung, Changhua and Nantou counties; the southern region, including Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan; a region including Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung; and an eastern region, including Hualien and Taitung counties.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
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