Former Department of Health minister Lin Fang-yue (林芳郁) yesterday officially took over as the new superintendent of Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH), despite opposition from some of the staff at the hospital.
At the inauguration ceremony, Lin said he felt like “a bride marrying into her husband’s family,” and that he was willing to make adjustments to become part of the TVGH family.
“I am proud to be appointed superintendent of TVGH, the leading hospital in Taiwan,” Lin said. “From this moment on … I will work hard with everyone to achieve the hospital’s goals and lead it to becoming an internationally recognized, first-class hospital.”
As superintendent, Lin said he hoped to develop medical care for the elderly, improve the hospital’s cooperation with other hospitals and medical research centers, as well as focus medical research on the biomedical field.
Lin was accompanied by his wife Lin Ching-yun(林靜芸), celebrity cosmetic surgeon and founder of Jean’s Clinic of Plastic Surgery.
Most of the TVGH department heads attended Lin’s inauguration ceremony, which was overseen by Kao Hua-chu (高華柱), director of the Executive Yuan’s Veterans Affairs Commission.
Lin said he hoped his entering the TVGH system would be a first step toward breaking down the walls that separate different hospital systems in Taiwan.
He said he would thoroughly become a “TVGH person,” a term many use to describe hospital personnel that work within the TVGH system, as opposed to a “National Taiwan University [NTU] person,” which describes someone who works in or graduated from NTU or National Taiwan University Hospital.
As the first superintendent of TVGH who was not promoted from within the system in the hospital’s 50-year history, Lin’s appointment has been met with opposition from both outside and within the hospital.
Earlier this month, former TVGH superintendent Lo Kwang-juei (羅光瑞), as well as several other retired and current hospital staff and department heads, held a press conference to openly criticize the appointment as politically motivated.
Last week, a local newspaper ran an advertisement on its front page that said government officials were “shaming the medical field” with Lin’s appointment.
Despite reports that some TVGH staff planned to oust him within a few months, Lin said he hoped he would serve in this position “for a while.”
Lin’s previous post as health minister ended after four months.
At the start of the melamine scandal in September, Lin resigned as health minister to take responsibility for the department’s handling of the controversy over tainted food imports from China.
His resignation made him the Cabinet member with the shortest term of service since Liu Chao-hsiuan (劉兆玄) became the premier.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include
RSS