Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) yesterday rejected a media report and a lawmaker’s allegation that the ministry has failed to efficiently allocate extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines, a temporary mechanical technique used to aid heart and lung function, for critically ill patients at a time when the nation is experiencing its highest weekly number of severe flu cases in five years.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the nation saw 339 new reported cases of severe flu with complications last week, 15 of which resulted in death; both are the highest weekly figures in the past five years. Since July last year, 1,109 severe flu cases have been reported and 84 of them have been fatal, the centers said on Tuesday.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday reported that there are no available ECMO machines at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), Mackay Memorial Hospital, China Medical University Hospital, Changhua Christian Hospital and Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, saying that emergency room doctors are anguishing over the “lack of ammunition to save lives.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) criticized Chiang during a legislative question-and-answer session, saying the ministry was insensitive to the need for ECMO treatments and was slow to react in coordinating among hospitals with ECMO machines nationwide.
When asked when the ministry intervened, Chiang said there are a total of 129 ECMO machines in the nation, adding that the ministry “is now in the process of managing the imbalance,” which prompted immediate criticism from Wu, who asked whether the agency had only started acting after the media exposed the problem.
“It was from [Wednesday], but it is important to understand that scheduling ECMO is not only about moving a machine around. An entire ECMO team would have to move as well,” Chiang said.
“Exactly,” Wu said. “That is why the ministry should have prepared long before a problem emerged when it became aware of the large number of severe flu cases with complications in the nation.”
She added that Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Mackay Memorial Hospital have of their own initiative already been contacting and borrowing ECMO machines from other hospitals.
Chiang later told reporters that at least 40 ECMO machines are available for use, adding that the problem lies with their distribution, not their number.
“It is impossible that the ministry would stand idly by when the public’s health is at stake,” Chiang said in response to the media report accusing the ministry of failing to act.
Separately yesterday, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who was an ECMO expert at NTUH prior to being elected mayor, said the issue revolved around not just the machines, but rather that a whole team would have to be trained to use them.
“Another variable in deciding whether ECMO is needed is how a patient’s influenza manifests itself. Sometimes a normal ventilator will do,” Ko said.
“What I am worried about is the problem of overuse. The ministry should create an emergency team to sort out the issue,” he added.
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