When Taiwan doctor Chang Yu-tai (張裕泰) was sealed inside the Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital a month ago, he knew he was putting his life at risk to treat patients with SARS.
But the emergency ward chief and his colleagues had little inkling their reputation and medical ethics would also be put to test as the worsening viral outbreak placed Taiwan's medical system under scrutiny.
This week, health authorities fined Chang's hospital and three others NT$1.5 million each for covering up or delaying their reporting of possible SARS patients, resulting in a wider spread of the virus.
Three Hoping doctors, including Chang, were personally fined T$90,000 each. All deny the charges.
"If any government officials are doctors, I wish they would go sit in an emergency ward and see some feverish patients," said Chang, a Japan-educated endocrinologist. "Let's see if they can tell who has SARS and who just has a cold."
Whispers of hospital cover-ups started to make the rounds this month, after President Chen Shui-bian (
As Taiwan's cases jumped 10-fold in a month to 570 by yesterday, with hospital infections accounting for 95 percent of new cases, suspicions grew that some hospitals may have delayed reporting SARS patients for fear of hurting revenues.
At the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital -- one of the four penalized -- many patients fled on media reports of a SARS outbreak, causing occupancy to plunge to 300 beds from 1,600.
Taiwan requires all doctors to report suspected SARS cases within 24 hours, but medical workers say there can be many reasons why that is delayed, including the difficulty of diagnosing an illness with similar symptoms to the common flu.
"If a doctor doesn't know for sure that a patient has SARS, he might not want to report the case," said Jenny Liao (
Carelessness, pride and profit concerns may have also encouraged doctors to classify some borderline cases as non-SARS, medical workers say, though most do not believe doctors will go so far as to wilfully violate the Hippocratic oath.
"It's impossible for a doctor to purposely cover up SARS," said Kuo San-dar (郭聖達), another doctor at Hoping's emergency room. "I can't accept a doctor will do that on purpose for any reason."
Chang and Kuo criticized the government for not investigating more thoroughly before issuing the penalties, saying the fines only pile more pressure on doctors battling to save lives.
Medical workers also fear a backlash: if all patients with fevers and coughs are treated as SARS cases, strained hospitals will be swamped with flu patients taking up quarantine beds.
"We will be very careful now. It will change the mentality and practices of many doctors when they see patients," said Wu Shu-min (吳樹民), chairman of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
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