The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s long-term healthcare 2.0 project has grown to serve nearly four times the number of people it handled when it started five years ago, it told the Cabinet yesterday.
The program is serving 470,000 people, or 3.8 times more than in 2017, while its coverage has surged by more than 300 percent to cover 67.03 percent of the nation and its budget has increased to NT$60.7 billion (US$2 billion) since 2016, it said.
A Taiwan Marketing Research poll, commissioned by the ministry, showed that more than 90 percent of respondents over three consecutive years said they were satisfied with the program and how it alleviated stress for people caring for those with long-term illnesses.
Photo: CNA
The program received a 97.6 percent satisfaction rating last year, demonstrating that the public supports the initiative, the ministry said.
Since its inception, the program’s main goal has been to establish at-home, communal or stay-over healthcare for people who require long-term care, establish payment schemes for workers, guarantee wages for long-term healthcare workers, increase service coverage, and develop measures to prevent or slow the loss of cognitive abilities among older people.
The program provides care through three types of centers: Category A is comprised of communal integrative service centers, category B are composite service centers and category C consists of front-end care centers.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the number of service locations across all three categories exceeded 11,000 nationwide, while the “one day care center per school area” project has also grown to 760 centers, with the two combining for a total national coverage rate of 65 percent.
Su has instructed the ministry to continue to improve the initiative and said he would ask agencies such as the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Financial Supervisory Commission to help with the program.
The health ministry said it wants the program to change the public’s perception of long-term healthcare, moving from all-day and one-on-one service models to daycare centers where a few workers can aid many people, or to a small-scale multifunctional family care service model.
The ministry is encouraging people to interact more with professional care workers and help “train” people to take more responsibility in caring for themselves to reduce their need for full-time care.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and