At the fifth Taiwan Children's Medical Services Awards ceremony today, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said that Taiwan's juvenile medical care must be further upgraded to meet international standards. He noted budget pressure and administrative priorities in the past have hampered government efforts in this field but that he expects breakthroughs can be achieved this year.
"Children's medical service is one of the government's most important tasks," the premier said. "For a society to be just, it must place the highest priority on protecting those who have the least ability to speak up for themselves, including low-income households, the disabled and children. The degree to which the government provides children protection and equity is an important indicator of whether it is just and civilized."
Premier Jiang affirmed the contribution of the Raising Children Medical Foundation in conferring the Taiwan Children's Medical Service Awards since 2005. The foundation finds physicians, nurses and medical service teams who quietly devote themselves to taking care of child patients and honors and thanks them for their devotion and good deeds through this ceremony. The event also presents these caregivers as models for others to follow in hopes of inspiring a greater number of compassionate professional caregivers to enter children's medicine.
Jiang also spoke about the drastic changes in the environment of the medical field and the demands made on it in the past few years. There has been a serious shortage of practicing doctors in five major branches of hospitals (internal medicine, external medicine, gynecology, pediatric care and emergency care), leading some to call them the "empty five." If the problem were not addressed, Taiwan could eventually lack good or even qualified physicians, the premier warned.
The government has worked to improve manpower in these fields over the last three years by providing these professionals more incentives and encouragement. Jiang has directed the Department of Health to address problems ranging from relevant education and training, the National Health Insurance payment plan to residency programs and the division of labor in hospitals. "Solid foundations for both fundamental medicine and critical care medicine must be laid as soon as possible," Jiang stressed.