Jengjong Spareribs (正忠排骨飯) restaurant chain yesterday apologized to frontline medical professionals and pledged to donate NT$1 million (US$32,971) to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) after one of its outlets in Taichung was criticized for refusing to deliver to a local hospital.
A Taichung Veterans General Hospital nurse posted on Facebook that a delivery order to the hospital had been turned down by the restaurant’s Fuko branch, adding: “For the first time, I felt my profession was discriminated against.”
The company wanted to apologize to the nation’s medical professional working on the front line, Jengjong Spareribs brand manager Wang Jui-hsiang (王睿翔) said, adding that the branch’s decision had not been authorized by the company’s headquarters.
Photo: Chang Ching-ya, Taipei Times
Several of the chain’s outlets are located in hospital food courts and are operating normally, and its headquarters has never told any branch to suspend delivery services to hospitals amid COVID-19 concerns, Wang said in the statement.
The director of the Fuko branch has been demoted for misconduct, the statement said.
“During the disease-prevention period, Jengjong Spareribs vows to prioritize orders coming from medical staff or hospitals,” it said.
Taichung Veterans General Hospital has also offered its thanks to people who have showed support and encouragement to the medical staff during this time.
Four other Taichung hospitals yesterday said they have not encountered a similar problem.
No staff hve had a food delivery canceled, Kuang Tien General Hospital said.
Tung’s Taichung Metroharbor Hospital said some of its patients had prepared masks for doctors as a show of goodwill.
Feng Yuan Hospital said it received 24 bowls of seafood porridge from a nearby restaurant, and 50 hamburgers from another, for free, adding that food operators in the neighborhood are all kind-hearted.
Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital said that deliveries of food orders have been proceeding normally, although it now requires that all deliveries be dropped off at a single location, instead of being sent to the departments or offices that placed the order.
Additional reporting by Ou Su-mei
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