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
‘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