The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) is to expand its home-based acute care program to include hospice home-care patients, while holiday bonuses would be increased, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday.
The NHIA launched the program in July. It has 160 teams and 3,571 healthcare practitioners from 692 clinics and hospitals, agency data showed.
As of last month, 255 people who were patients at 71 clinics or hospitals had utilized the program, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
The utilization rates at regional hospitals and clinics were 32 percent and 28 percent respectively, the data showed.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) told a forum on home-based acute care policies and practices at the Cares Expo Taipei that home care is recommended for people if hospitalization is not necessary, as it increases comfort for patients and eases the burden on emergency rooms.
People aged 65 or older are projected to account for up to 20 percent of the population next year — making Taiwan a “super-aged society” — more than 30 percent by 2039 and 43.6 percent by 2070, Shih said at the forum.
The government should respond to the situation by making changes, he said, adding that home-based acute care is a new mode of healthcare service that would pose a lot of challenges.
Difficulties and obstacles facing frontline workers would be collected at the forum to be used as reference for the expansion of the program next year, when collaboration avenues would be broadened, Shih said.
The program would also be expanded to include acute care for more than 20,000 hospice home care patients, whose conditions range from malnutrition to cachexia, as well as some who require pain control, he said.
Further analysis is needed to develop a feasible plan, he added.
Department of Long-Term Care head Chu Chien-fang (祝健芳) said that nurses at care institutions are encouraged to receive training on home hospice care to facilitate end-of-life services at home.
More than 3,000 people have received hospice care at home from institutions, and more assistance from hospitals is needed to provide integrated and comprehensive services, Chu said.
Meanwhile, nursing groups at a news conference at the expo called for a 20 percent wage hike for healthcare workers who conduct home visits.
Taiwan Home Nursing and Service Association director Tseng Chin-yuan (曾勤媛) said that home care nurses have visited people even during bad weather and the COVID-19 pandemic, but their wages have not increased over the past decade, despite inflation.
Shih said that as home visits during holidays are more tiring and few healthcare workers do them, a bonus for nurses would be discussed and implemented in the first quarter of next year at the earliest.
Additional reporting by CNA
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