With a hundreds of patients having to be sent to Taiwan proper for treatment — which sometimes puts their lives at risk — Kinmen County residents yesterday urged the government to improve medical facilities in the county.
“We, the people of Kinmen, are paying taxes like others living on Taiwan proper and we are not asking for much,” Democratic Progressive Party Kinmen County Councilor Chen Tsang-chiang (陳滄江) told a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
“We are only humbly asking to enjoy the same amount of medical resources as those living on Taiwan proper,” Chen said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Citing official figures from the Kinmen County Department of Health, Chen said that, on average, more than 300 people in the county had to be regularly sent by military transport aircraft to Taiwan proper for medical treatment in the past three years, while 80 to 100 people were sent to Taiwan proper by helicopter for emergency medical treatment.
Chen said that a man in Kinmen was suffering from a cardiovascular problem which needed an emergency operation which could not be performed in Kinmen. The case was reported at 11pm, but he was not picked up by helicopter until 3:10am and he arrived at a hospital in Taipei after 5am the next morning.
“Another man passed away during the wait for a helicopter,” Chen said.
“This is why there is an urgent need for better medical facilities in Kinmen — and before such facilities are made available, we need helicopters stationed in Kinmen, ready to transfer patients at all times,” he added.
Responding to the complaint, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Nursing and Healthcare Director-General Teng Su-wen (鄧素文) said that the ministry has already targeted the issue and has begun to improve medical facilities in Kinmen.
“We’ve already started building a new annex at the ministry’s Kinmen Hospital, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year,” Teng said. “We will equip the new building with better and newer equipment to provide better service to Kinmen residents.”
In addition, Teng said that the ministry has asked Kinmen students currently attending medical schools in Taiwan proper on full scholarships to return to Kinmen County after completing their studies.
“We understand the problem that Kinmen residents face and we are working to make it better,” Teng said.
Commenting on Chen’s request to have helicopters permanently stationed in Kinmen, Duty Command Center Director of the National Airborne Service Corps Lin Cheng-hsun (林政勳) said it would not be possible.
“We have a total of 25 helicopters, with only 10 of them capable of crossing the Taiwan Strait,” Lin said. “These aircraft are stationed at different locations in Taiwan, so it’s not likely that we would have extra helicopters that could be stationed [permanently] in Kinmen.”
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final