Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said the he hopes the healthcare sector could cooperate with the government to enhance the nation’s long-term care services and the biotechnology industry, and to introduce more information technology to medical administration.
Lai made the remarks while delivering the opening speech of the two-day annual conference of the Formosan Medical Association.
The association is the oldest local medical group, having been established 115 years ago, and is dedicated to promoting medical education and enhancing medical research, Lai said, adding that this annual conference was its 110th, and local as well as overseas medical specialists were invited to attend.
Photo: CNA
In his speech, Lai briefly introduced the two main topics of this year’s conference: National Health Insurance (NHI) payment principles for cancer medication and food safety.
“Cancer has ranked No. 1 among the 10 leading causes of death in Taiwan for 35 consecutive years and approximately 650,000 people receive cancer treatment each year,” Lai said.
NHI expenditure on cancer treatments has increased from NT$60.7 billion (US$2.01 billion) in 2011 to NT$84.5 billion last year, while expenditure on cancer medication alone increased from NT$25.7 billion in 2012 to NT$32.2 billion last year — accounting for about 38 percent of the total cost of treatment, Lai said.
He said that this was not a small percentage and that he hoped to hear suggestions on the issue from the conference.
The “Five Links of Food Safety” program was initiated by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to enhance the nation’s food safety management, Lai said while addressing the second theme, adding that the government is to increase the annual food safety budget to NT$5 billion next year, from NT$4.5 billion this year.
In addition, he said the government is encouraging the healthcare sector to cooperate to achieve improvements in three areas: the Long-term Care Services Program 2.0, the biotechnology industry and medical administration informatization.
The biotechnology industry is included in the government’s ”five plus two” innovative industries program, Lai said, adding that the Executive Yuan has amended the Act for the Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceutical Industry (生技新藥產業發展條例) to loosen the standards for high-risk medical equipment.
The government has also amended the Fundamental Science and Technology Act (科學技術基本法) to encourage academic researchers to apply their research results to the biotechnology industry, Lai said, adding that Academia Sinica’s National Biotechnology Research Park is expected to begin operation next year.
Finally, Lai said the government hopes to improve medical administration by introducing more technology and using information technology to reduce unnecessary healthcare expenditure and provide better healthcare to patients.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS