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physicians & medical Doctors in Taiwan   ★   national insurance in a state of disease
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Taiwan

        Taiwan ranks No. 208 in World's Best Hospitals by Newsweek

　

n

news: Yahoo Taiwan (2025-6-13): The peak of the COVID-19 outbreak has passed. The CDC said that the epidemic will continue until early August.   聯合報 (United Daily 2025-6-3): Epidemic threat has increased sharply。The gov. estimated that nearly 1.8 million people will be CovID confirmed from end of May till early August.  CovID cases could peak around end of Jun or early July;  The Antiviral Paxlovid drug and rapid test kit are out of stock or late arrangement; the bigger concern will be medical capacity - crowded emergency room and medical staffs collapse?

n Taiwan ranks No.208 in "World's Best Hospitals" ranking list (Feb. 27, 2025) by Newsweek

World's Best Hospitals 2025
by Newsweek
comparison among Asia's countries
rankings.newsweek.com/worlds-best-hospitals-2025
world rank hospital country
8 Sheba Medical center Israel
9 Singapore General Hospital Singapore
16 The Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Japan
25 Asan Medical center S. Korea
30 Samsung Medical Center S. Korea
36 St. Luke's Int'l Hospital Japan
42 Seoul National Univ. Hospital S. Korea
46 Severance Hospital Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
58 Kameda Medical Center Japan
60 Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical center Israel
62 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Australia
68 Seoul National Univ. - Bundang Hospital S. Korea
80 National Univ. Hospital Singapore
81 Kyushu Univ. Hospital Japan
87 Gangnam Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
91 Nagoya Univ. Hospital Japan
94 The Alfred Australia
96 Royal Melbourne Hospital Parkville Australia
97 All India Institute of Medical Science Delhi India
98 Keio Univ. Hospital Japan
100 Bumrungrad Int'l Hospital Thailand
101 Tan Tock Seng Hospital Singapore
102 Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health & medicine Japan
103 Ajou Univ. Hospital  S. Korea
108 The Catholic Univ. Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital S. Korea
111 Mount Elizabeth - Orchard Singapore
112 Kyoto Univ. Hospital Japan
122 Rabin Medical Center Israel
138 Changi General (CGH) Singapore
139 Inha Univ. Hospital S. Korea
146 Medanta The Medicity India
151 St Vincent's Hospital Fitzroy Australia
155 Toranomon Hospital Japan
159 Royal North Shore Hospital Australia
166 Osaka Univ. Hospital Japan
171 KyungHee Univ. Hospital S. Korea
172 Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi UAE
174 Kangbuk Samsung Hospital S. Korea
176 Konkuk Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
181 Korea Univ. Anam Hospital S. Korea
185 Hokkaido Univ. Hospital Japan
190 Juntendo Univ. Hospital Japan
193 Sunway Medical Center Malaysia
197 The Cathilic Univ. Korea Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital S. Korea
200 Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Australia
201 Kurashiki Central Hospital Japan
204 Gleneagles Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
205 Japanese Red Cross Medical center Japan
207 Chung-Ang Univ. Hospital S. Korea
208 Taipei Veterans General 台北榮總 Taiwan 台灣
209 King Faisal Specialist Hospital (KFSH&RC) Saudi Arabia
216 Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital Japan
223 Ewha Womans Univ. Medical Center  S. Korea
228 PGIMER - Postgraduate Institute Medical Education and Research India
242 Hadassah University Hospital - Ein Kerem Israel

ranking lists the best hospitals in 30 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries were selected based on multiple comparability factors, such as standard of living, life expectancy, population size, number of hospitals and data availability.

Scores were calculated for each hospital in each of the four categories and weighted: Peer recommenda­tions (35 percent national, 5 percent international), patient experience (17.5 percent), hospital quali­ty metrics (37.5 percent), PROMs implementation (5 percent).

Every hospital in each country is rated with a score. Scores are comparable only between hospitals in the same country because different sources for patient experience and medical key performance indicators were examined in each country. Since it is not possible to harmonize this data, cross-country comparisons of the scores are not possible (a score of 90 in country A doesn't necessarily mean that this hospital is better than a hos­pital with a score of 87 in country B).

　

　

n Taiwan ranks No.10 out of 11 Asian countries in "World's Best Hospitals" ranking list (Feb. 27, 2025) by Newsweek

comparison among Asian countries
Country/Ranks No.1~100 No.101~200 No.201~250 Total
Japan 6 6 3 15
S. Korea 6 8 2 16
Israel 2 1 1 4
Singapore 2 3 　 5
Australia 3 3 　 6
India 1 1 1 3
Thailand 1 　 　 1
UAE 　 1 　 1
Malaysia 　 1 1 2
Taiwan 台灣 　 　 1 1
Saudi Arabia 　 　 1 1
Total 21 24 10 55
China, HK not included in survey
in total, 11 Asian countries are under survey

　

　

　

pic. : No.1  "physicians in Taiwan" on Yandex Russia at  2025-6-3, 2025-5-8, 2025-2-8, 2024-12-24, 2024-8-8, 2024-2-28, 2024-1-15, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-13, 2023-10-5, 2023-8-25, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-24, 2023-5-1, 2023-4-28, 2023-3-16, 2023-3-17, 2022-6-30, 2022-6-12, 2022-5-27, 2022-4-22, 2022-3-11, 2022-2-16,  2022-1-23,  2021-12-30, 2021-11-12,  2021-10-27, 2021-10-14, 2021-9-29, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29

　

　

　

pic. : This websites group  was ranked No.1 on Yandex of Russia  by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  test at  2025-6-3, 2025-5-8, 2025-2-8,  2024-12-24, 2024-1-1, 2023-10-5, 2023-8-25, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-24, 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-10-28, 2021-10-15, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-16; No.2 at 2023-11-13, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17;   No.2 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on Yandex, 2024-8-8, 2024-5-2

　

　

　

　

　

n Taiwan's top 25 hospitals in "World's Best Hospitals" ranking list (Feb. 27, 2025) by Newsweek

Newsweek  2025   top 25 Taiwan hospitals
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-hospitals-2024/taiwan

rank

hospitals

2024 score

2025 score
1 Taipei Veterans General Hospital 93.4% 92.99%
2 NTU Hospital 93.28 92.51%
3 Kaoshiung Chang Gung Mem 83.11 90.54
4 Linkou Chang Gung Mem. 84.32 89.72
5 Taichung Veterans General 83.91 89.43
6 China Medical Univ. Hospital 82.55 85.22
7 National Cheng Kung Univ. Hospital 81.20 84.13
8 Kaohsiung Medical Univ. Chung-Ho Mem. Hospital 78.81 82.18
9 Mackay Mem. Hospital 81.30 80.99
10 Taoyuan Chang Gung Mem. Hospital 78.78 80.25
11 Cathay General Hospital 77.69 78.56
12 Hualin Tzu Chi General Hospital 77.10 77.64
13 Taipei Tzu Chi General Hospital -  New Tpe 78.10 77.57
14 Taipei Chang Gung Mem. Hospital 77.90 77.54
15 NTU Hospital Yunlin 75.94 77.45
16 Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital 77.33 77.34
17 China Medical Univ. Beigang Hospital 76.86 74.69
18 Chi Mei Medical Center - Tainan 73.69 74.39
19 Taipei Medical Univ. Hospital 76.5 74.35
20 Cathay General Hospital, Hsinchu 73.51 74.09
21 Far Eastern Mem. Hospital 75.61 73.87
22 Sijhih Cathay General Hospital 　 73.43
23 Chung Shan Medical Univ. Hospital - Taichung 75.30 73.40
24 YunLin Chang Gung Mem. Hospital 　 73.23
25 Tri-Service General Hospital- Songshan 74.10 73.14
rankings.newsweek.com/worlds-best-hospitals-2025-top-250/taiwan

　

n Taiwan's emergency and ICU

　

Emergency room and ICU serious congestion
United Daily (聯合報), 2025-3-2 The vice-president of National Taiwan University Hospital said that it is "really difficult" to recruit emergency resident-Doctors recently. Mesozoic doctors rely on their enthusiasm to survive. In the past, each emergency attending physician cared for an average of 20 to 30 patients, but now to take care of more than 30~40 patients. Not only the departments of emergency but pediatrics are facing difficulties.
United Daily (聯合報), 2025-2-24 It's been a long time that Taiwan lacks of nursing manpower. In the past ten years, the national nursing manpower has had an average annual net increase of 5,000 people, but in recent years, only 2,500 people. therefore, we have to rely on senior nurses.  Nursing staff's high turnover rate is caused by salary remuneration, work pressure, workplace environment, insufficient manpower allocation, and that labor effort is not proportional to the income.

The measures proposed by the government, such as night shift allowances and adjustments to the nurse-to-patient ratio, are mostly mere formalities.  Old salary structure certainly lead to a continued collapse in medical capacity and a significant reduction in the quality of medical care.
Forced compulsory transferals for acute and severe cases have become the norm - e.g., a patient with aortic dissection urgently need to be transferred to a hospital for treatment in intensive care unit. However, big hospitals from Taipei to Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Changhua etc, all were not willing to take that patient.  Most likely, the case is just a tip of the iceberg.

udn.com/news/story/124393/8566910?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub124393_pulldownmenu_v2;
udn.com/news/story/124393/8566919?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub124393_pulldownmenu_v2
Yahoo Taiwan, 2025-2-26 By the end of 2024, the number of registered nurses in Taiwan is more than 193,000. The total turnover rate of hospital nursing staff is nearly 13%, and the total vacancy rate is about 6%.  The largest proportion of nurses practice is in clinics, 2nd is long-term care institutions. The reason resulting in a shortage of manpower in many hospital emergency rooms is that (1) labor-intensive medical environment (2) low-paid.  tw.news.yahoo.com/護理人力短缺-病床關閉加劇急診壅塞-恐-全盤皆輸-032840460.html
United Daily, 2025-2-27 NTU professor 陳秀熙 says: Taiwan's budget for medical resource is insufficient, and the design of the health insurance system does not take into account the huge medical needs of the post-war baby boomers. The number of cancer and chronic diseases has been more than double or triple, and the demand for hospitalization is a all-time high
udn.com/news/story/124393/8574437?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub124393_pulldownmenu_v2
China Times (中時), 2025-2-24 The root cause of emergency room congestion lies in the structural problems of the medical system and the government's neglect and inaction to medical needs.  
SET TV News (三立新聞), 2025-2-25 Emergency room congestion! However, Taiwan's ICU bed-to-population ratio is "global No.1"  ─  Taiwan 31, Germany 29.2, Argentina 25.8, the United States 25.8, Austria 21.8;  The issue is that the hospital bed scheduling mechanism (調床機制) exists in name only, and the resignation of nurses is in serious situation ─   higher salary could improve the situation.  video: 急診壅塞! 前線人員壓力大 重症患者等嘸病床!
TTV news (台視新聞), 2025-2-25 video: 急診壅塞衛福部提解方 醫界：根本是空談  
The medical government's proposals to solve the issue were bashing "difficult to implement! " by the medical circle, because the core problem is insufficient medical manpower and no beds available.  Providing with financial incentives is one of right ways.
UDN (聯合報),  2025-2-25 The fundamental reasons for the shortage of hospital beds are insufficient nurse manpower and low health insurance points (健保點數);  "hierarchical medical care system " (「分級醫療」) has never been implemented - which results in overcrowded emergency rooms . Besides, the government has always been slow to respond the call for adjustment of health insurance benefits for acute and severe cases  (健保給付調整急重症給付).

More than 70% of large hospital emergency-room patients are not urgent cases and should be transfered to regional level hospitals. However, many people prefer medical centers and famous Doctors. It is necessary for the government to formulate compulsory measures.

udn.com/news/story/124393/8569185?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub124393_pulldownmenu_v2,
　


pic.: Where are nurses working ?  Yahoo Taiwan, 2025-2-26, SET TV, 2025-2-25
red line: clinics; blue: hospitals; green: long-term care institution; yellow: others

　

　

Income of Taiwan's physicians and nursing staff
United Daily (聯合報), 2025-3-5 NTUH union (台大醫院企業工會秘書長) says the resident Doctors at National Taiwan University Hospital and other public hospitals are paid low, with a fixed salary of only about NT$ 50,000, it may up to only NT$ 60,000 to 80,000 after adding various bonuses. Analyzing the fixed salary and working hours of resident Doctors at NTUH, the converted hourly salary is only more than NT$ 200 (about USD 7);  NTUH (台大醫院醫務秘書) says that the fixed salary of a resident Doctor, before deducting labor and health insurance, is about NT$ 70,000. If MDs on duty normally ( in average eight shifts per month), the monthly income ( including bonuses and points of working-years accumulated ) will not be NT$ 80,000 or more.udn.com/news/story/124393/8586216?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub124393_pulldownmenu_v2
United Daily (聯合報), 2025-3-5 According to data from the Ministry of Labor, the average monthly regular salary of nursing staff is about NT$ 47,716, which is the average regular salary(經常性月薪平均), but it is not the basic salary(本薪).  Fixed allowances and bonuses paid on a monthly basis, as well as hazard pay, transportation expenses, meal expenses, utility bills, attendance bonuses vary from hospital to hospital.(按月給付的固定津貼、獎金，以及危險津貼、交通費、膳食費、水電費、全勤獎金等。各醫院不盡相同)udn.com/news/story/124393/8587820?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

　

　

n Taiwan ranks No.99 in World's Best Smart Hospital list (2025) by Newsweek, Statista

World's Best Smart Hospitals 2025
by Newsweek, Statista
a survey on 28 countries
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-smart-hospitals-2025
world rank hospital country
10 Sheba Medical center Israel
18 Samsung Medical Center S. Korea
22 Singapore General Hospital Singapore
23 The Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Japan
30 Tan Tock Seng Hospital Singapore
39 Fortis Memorial Research Institute India 
45 Gleneagles Hospital Singapore
57 Kyoto Univ. Hospital Japan
60 Seoul National Univ. Hospital S. Korea
65 Asan Medical center S. Korea
77 National Univ. Hospital Singapore
85 Keio University Hospital Japan
94 Wooridul Spine Hospital S. Korea
96 Seoul National University - Bundang Hospital S. Korea
98 Ajou University Hospital S. Korea
99 Taichung Veterans General Hospital Taiwan 
ps: survey-studies not including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, etc

　

n comparison among main countries in Asia

World's Best Smart Hospitals 2025
by Newsweek

Asia's rank

country

number of top 100  hospitals
1 S. Korea 6 (No. 18, 60, 65, 94, 96,98)
2 Singapore 4 (No.22, 30, 45, 77)
3 Japan 3 (No. 23, 57, 85)
4 Israel 1 (No.10)
5 India 1 (No. 39)
6 Taiwan 1 (No.99)

　

n Taiwan's hospitals enter top 350

World's Best Smart Hospitals 2025 by Newsweek

臺中榮總 Taichung Veterans General Hospital
中國醫大醫院 China Medical Univ. Hospital
高雄長庚 Kaohsiung Chang Gung Mem. Hospital
高雄榮總 Kaohsiung  Veterans General Hospital
林口長庚  Linkou Chang Gung Mem. Hospital
成大醫院 National Cheng Kung Univ. Hospital
台大醫院 National Taiwan Univ. Hospital
臺北榮總 Taipei Veterans General Hospital

　

　

n Taiwan's physicians and medical system

♦ The Superintendent of the National Taiwan Univ. Hospital (台大醫院), Ming-Shiang Wu, M.D., PhD, said:  "Health insurance has changed Taiwan's medical ecology and the unreasonable payment system results in young MDs being reluctant to join the front line";  In comparison with the front line's long working hours, high pressure, low wages, resource shortages and  the risk of social incomprehension and medical disputes... , self-pay medical treatments fields like aesthetic medicine are more attractive to young Doctors.  ref. to The Liberty Times (2025-2-8)  talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1690637

♦  United Daily  (2025-2-11 聯合報): The share of Taiwan's GDP spent on medical is equivalent to  the position third or 4th to last in OECD countries  udn.com/news/story/7339/8539874?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7339_pulldownmenu_v2

♦ Statista (2024-9-26): As of the end of 2023, there were about 54,016 physicians registered in Taiwan. 
♦ Google AI Overview: larger hospitals can be overcrowded and charge higher co-payments.  Resident physicians in Taiwan earn a salary of NT$65,798 to $78,490 in their first five years of service.  Physicians in Taiwan can work long hours to retain patients. To increase their income, some physicians develop procedural skills like minor cosmetic surgery or platelet rich plasma injection, which are not covered by insurance.

♦ Council on Foreign Relations, 2024-2-27: Taiwan's healthcare system, despite its affordability and accessibility, is financially unsustainable, further exacerbated by a rapidly aging population. The three parties will need to agree on how to secure the necessary financial and labor resources.

◆

　

n Taiwan's hospital in 2024 Newsweek & Statista  "World's Best Hospitals"

World's Best Hospitals 2024
by Newsweek
comparison among Asia's countries
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-hospitals-2024
world rank hospital country
9 Sheba Medical center Israel
11 Singapore General Hospital Singapore
18 The Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Japan
22 Asan Medical center S. Korea
24 St. Luke's Int'l Hospital Japan
34 Samsung Medical Center S. Korea
40 Severance Hospital Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
43 Seoul National Univ. Hospital S. Korea
45 Kameda Medical Center Japan
56 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Australia
64 Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical center Israel
69 Kyushu Univ. Hospital Japan
79 National Univ. Hospital Singapore
81 Seoul National Univ. - Bundang Hospital S. Korea
86 Nagoya Univ. Hospital Japan
88 Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health & medicine Japan
94 Gangnam Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
96 Kyoto Univ. Hospital Japan
97 The Alfred Australia
102 Royal Melbourne Hospital Parkville Australia
104 The Catholic Univ. Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital S. Korea
110 Tan Tock Seng Hospital Singapore
111 Keio Univ. Hospital Japan
113 All India Institute of Medical Science Delhi India
116 Mount Elizabeth - Orchard Singapore
120 Ajou Univ. Hospital S. Korea
130 Bumrungrad Int'l Hospital Thailand
134 Royal North Shore Hospital Australia
148 Inha Univ. Hospital S. Korea
152 Kangnuk Samsung Hospital S. Korea
156 Changi General (CGH) Singapore
158 Rabin Medical Center Israel
160 Korea Univ. Anam Hospital S. Korea
166 Medanta The Medicity India
167 Gleneagles Hospital Singapore
168 Toranomon Hospital Japan
170 The Cathilic Univ. Korea Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital S. Korea
172 Osaka Univ. Hospital Japan
177 Kurashiki Central Hospital Japan
186 Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi UAE
188 Juntendo Univ. Hospital Japan
189 St Vincent's Hospital Fitzroy Australia
201 Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Australia
206 Hokkaido Univ. Hospital Japan
208 KyungHee Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
212 Japanese Red Cross Medical center Japan
214 Chung-Ang Univ. Hospital S. Korea
218 Taipei Veterans General 台北榮總 Taiwan 台灣
222 Konkuk Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
223 Gleneagles Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
224 Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital Japan
225 Ewha Womans Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
229 King Faisal Specialist Hospital (KFSH&RC) Saudi Arabia
233 Sunway Medical Center Malaysia
235 Daegu Catholic Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
246 PGIMER - Postgraduate Institute Medical Education and Research India
score is based on an online survey of more than 85,000 medical experts and public data from post-hospitalization patient surveys on their general satisfaction. The score also considers metrics on things like hygiene and patient/doctor ratio as well as a Statista survey on whether hospitals use Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)

　

comparison among Asian countries
Country/Ranks No.1~100 No.101~200 No.201~250 Total
Japan 7 5 3 15
S. Korea 6 6 5 17
Israel 2 1 　 3
Singapore 2 4 　 6
Australia 2 4 　 6
India 　 2 1 3
Thailand 　 1 　 1
UAE 　 1 　 1
Malaysia 　 　 2 2
Taiwan 台灣 　 　 1 1
Saudi Arabia 　 　 1 1
Total 19 24 13 56
China, HK not included in survey
in total, 11 Asian countries are under survey

　

　

　

　

pic. :  The website group ranks No.2 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on Microsoft Bing , 2025-2-8, 2024-12-24, 2024-5-2  ;  No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on Microsoft Bing , 2023-11-13, 2023-10-5, 2023-8-25, 2023-3-17, 2023-1-1, 2022-9-18, 2022-7-1, 2022-6-13, 2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17,  2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-10-28, 2021-10-15, 2021-9-30,  2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-5-25, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10,  3-10-2021, 2-12-2021, 8-17-2020, 8-5-2020;

　

　

 

pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Microsoft Bing , 2024-5-2, 2023-11-13, 2023-10-5, 2023-5-1, 2023-3-26, 2023-1-1, 2022-7-21, 2022-7-1, 2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-31,  2021-5-25, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 2-12-2021

　

　

　

　

Newsweek  2024   top 25 Taiwan hospitals
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-hospitals-2024/taiwan

rank

hospitals

2024 score

2023 score, rank
1 Taipei Veterans General Hospital台北榮總 93.4% 97.05, No.2
2 NTU Hospital台大醫院 93.28 97.2%, No.1
3 Linkou Chang Gung Mem. 林口長庚 84.32 82.36, No.6
4 Taichung Veterans General 台中榮總 83.91 80.44, No.8
5 Kaoshiung Chang Gung Mem 高雄長庚 83.11 88.64
6 China Medical Univ. Hospital中國醫藥大學醫院 82.55 82.58
7 Mackay Mem. Hospital馬偕 81.30 78.62
8 National Cheng Kung Univ. Hospital成大 81.20 82.72
9 Kaohsiung Medical Univ. Chung-Ho Mem. Hospital高雄醫大 78.81 76.30, No.16
10 Taoyuan Chang Gung Mem. Hospital 78.78 77.95
11 Taipei Tzu Chi General Hospital -  New Tpe新北慈濟 78.10 77.60
12 Taipei Chang Gung Mem. Hospital桃園長庚 77.90 80.76, No.7
13 Cathay General Hospital國泰醫院 77.69 79.16
14 Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital高雄榮總 77.33 78.97
15 Hualin Tzu Chi General Hospital花蓮慈濟 77.10 74.99, No.19
16 China Medical Univ. Beigang Hospital中國醫大北港分院 76.86 not top 20
17 Taipei Medical Univ. Hospital台北醫大 76.5 not top 20
18 NTU Hospital Yunlin台大雲林分院 75.94 not top 20
19 Far Eastern Mem. Hospital遠東 75.61 not top 20
20 Chung Shan Medical Univ. Hospital - Taichung中山醫大 75.30 75.58
21 Tri-Service General Hospital- Songshan三軍總醫 74.10 78.25, No.12
22 Taipei Municipal Wangfang Hospital萬芳 73.84 not top 20
23 Chi Mei Medical Center - Tainan奇美 73.69 76.61, No.15
24 Cathay General Hospital, Sijhih國泰 分院 73.51 not top 20
25 Cathay General Hospital, Hsinchu國泰新竹 73.11 not top 20

　

World's Best Specialized Hospitals 2024
by Newsweek
top hospitals - comparison among Asia's countries
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-specialized-hospitals-2024
Oncology 　
world rank hospital country
5 Samsung Medical Center S. Korea
6 Asan Medical center S. Korea
9 Seoul National Univ. Hospital S. Korea
14 Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Australia
15 National Cancer Center Hospital Japan
27 Severance Hospital Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
29 The Catholic Univ. Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospita S. Korea
33 Cancer Research Ariake Hospital Japan
39 National Cancer Center S. Korea
53 National Cancer Center Hospital East Japan
55 Keio Univ. Hospital Japan
64 The Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Japan
68  National Cancer Center Singapore (NCCS) Singapore
69 Seoul National Univ. - Bundang Hospital S. Korea
70 Hokkaido Univ. Hospital Japan
77 Kyoto Univ. Hospital Japan
97 Shizuoka Cancer Center Japan
105 Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Australia
110 Osaka Univ. Hospital Japan
114  St. Luke's Int'l Hospital Japan
120 Chonnam National Univ. - Hwasun Hospital S. Korea
129 Tohoku Univ. Hospital Japan
135 Tata Memorial Hospital India
143 Okayama Univ. Hospital Japan
147 National Hospital Organization Kyushu Cancer Center Japan
148 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Australia
150 Austin Hospital Australia
151 Nagoya Univ. Hospital Japan
152 Korea Cancer center Hospital S. Korea
155 Kyushu Univ. Hospital Japan
164 Changi General Hospital Singapore
168 Gangnam Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ.  S. Korea
181 Korea Univ. Guro Hospital S. Korea
188 Chiba Univ. Hospital Japan
189 Juntendo Univ. Hospital Japan
194 Westmead Hospital Australia
201 Apollo Hospital - Chennai India
202 Ajou Univ. Hospital S. Korea
204 Hadassah Medical Center Mount Scopus Israel
205 Sheba Medical Center Israel
206 All India Institute of Medical Sciences - Delhi India
211 Osaka City Univ. Hospital Japan
212 Konkuk Univ. Medical Canter S. Korea
218 Kangbuk Samsung Hospital S. Korea
234 National Univ. Hospital (NUH) / National U. Cancer Institute Singapore
241 Hadassah Univ. Hospital - Ein Kerem Israel
242 CSingapore General Hospital (SGH) Singapore
243 Aichi Medical Univ. Hospital Japan

　

Cardiology 　
world rank hospital country
14 National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center Japan
33 Asan Medical center S. Korea
39 Prince Charles Hospital Australia
46 Sheba Medical Centre Israel

　

Cardiac Surgery 　
world rank hospital country
12 The Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Japan
24 National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center Japan
33 Sakakibara Heart Institute Japan
41 Royal Melbourne Hospital - Parkville Australia

　

Gastroenterology 　
world rank hospital country
5 Asan Medical Center S. Korea
9 Samsung Medical Center S. Korea
12 The Catholic Univ. Korea - Seoul St. Mary's Hospital Japan
38 Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
41 Korea univ. - Anam Hospital S. Korea
45 Sheba Medical Center Israel
50 Seoul National univ. Hospital S. Korea

　

Neurosurgery 　
world rank hospital country
14 Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Japan
23 Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
33 Gangnam Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
42 Sheba Medical Center Israel
46 Kyoto Univ. Hospital Japan

　

Pulmonology 　
world rank hospital country
28 Samsung Medical Center S. Korea
32 Asan Medical Center S. Korea
37 Seoul National Univ. Hospital S. Korea
38  Univ. Tokyo Hospital Japan
41 Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
42 Inha Univ. Hospital S. Korea
44 Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Heath and medicine Japan
48 Changi General Hospital (CGH) Singapore

　

n news

　

♣ The China Times, CTV news, 2024-9-21: Many Taiwanese people petitioned for not having hospital beds;  Taipei city councilor found many hospitals have beds, but lack of nursing staffs to take care of more patients.  msn.com/zh-tw/health/other/醫院有床卻沒有護理師-北市聯醫人力短缺病患苦等無解/ar-AA1qVeyq

♣ United Daily (聯合報), 2024-8-23: Professor of Taipei Medical University:  In 健康台灣推動委員會 meeting held by Taiwan Presidential Office, an expert (中經院院長) urged to take the property of the elderly to meet the needs of national insurance ；Those kind of thinking of taking advantage of elderly persons (啃老) has become the mainstream thinking among Taiwanese officials and national think tank.  However, the spirit of health insurance is that the healthy people support the sick, and young people support elderly people.  The government should think about how to increase the income of young people, instead of finding some way to make the elderly to cough up their limited money.  udn.com/news/story/7339/8179879?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2  

 楊哲銘／北醫大教授
♣ United Daily (聯合報), 2024-8-23: Professor of National Chung-Cheng University: Professional arrogance may ignore patients’ symptoms and lead to misdiagnosis  /  one of my friends described chest pain symptoms to the MD many times, but the Doctor simply attributed it to anxiety and did not conduct further examination; until she passed out one day and found Severe aortic stenosis causes arrhythmia (重度主動脈狹窄引發心律不整)。another one suffering from headaches and blurred vision for a long time have attended MD many times. Doctors mostly insisted that it was stress and did not recommend further examination; until one day she   passed out and was diagnosed with brain tumor.  Be brave enough to Actively ask questions and defend your right. 
udn.com/news/story/7339/8179938?from=udn-relatednews_ch2 
朱柔若／中正大學教授
♣ United Daily (聯合報), 2024-8-23Excessive health insurance packages squeezed frontline medical care.  The new government intensified the issue .They refuse to invest more in the medical environment which caused the quality of medical care in Taiwan to decline.  Those money officials claim saved actually are earned through the health of you and your loved ones
udn.com/news/story/7339/8179882
盧俊瑋／醫科助理教授

　

♦ China Times, 2024-7-19: The government does not dare to raise premiums to avoid losing the elections.  Since benefits for drug-prices are cut almost every year, hospitals refuse to import higher-priced brand drugs, instead, generic drugs that are less effective. Due to global budget payment system,  the more patients Doctors see, the more financial losses the hospital will suffer.  Now all hospitals are faced with the problem of lacking of MDs in Internal medicine, Surgery, Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Emergency departments. Medical students with good grades usually go to fields like Dermatology, medical Cosmetology, and Ophthalmology, which are high-paying and easy-going . 

◆

♦ United Daily (2024-6-5): Don't let patients become lambs to be slaughtered !!

 At present, cell therapy and regenerative medicine are very Chaotic, and there is a disparity in medical information between doctors and patients. The government (Ministry of Health and Welfare) cannot shift the blame for failing to fulfill its responsibility for patient care. Regenerative medicine may become the most expensive and ineffective medical treatment in the history of Taiwan medicine  udn.com/news/story/11674/8010191?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub11674_pulldownmenu_v2

◆

♦ FTV News (民視新聞), 2024-8-25:  According to the Ministry of Labor (2022), the average monthly salary of Taiwan's physicians is NT 156,178 (about USD 5200); the average annual salary of physicians is NT 2,320,000   youtube.com/watch?v=_TFLw15CS9c     TTV News (台視新聞), 2024-5-16: the monthly salary of many young attending physicians is about NT 100,000    youtube.com/watch?v=aokjvVAZ0kc

◆

♦ China Times, 2024-6-26:  Many medical institutions in Taiwan have a long-standing problem of lacking nursing staffs.  From the second half of last year, major hospitals had to close some beds to cope with the situation;  A widely-known nursing home in northern Taiwan closed 50 beds, besides, there are issues of medical saline shortage.  As CovID returns in Taiwan, our government reacts slowly and even is not willing to  admit the issue - lacking of medical staffs and resources.     chinatimes.com/opinion/20240626004474-262101?chdtv

◆

♦ The Liberty Times (自由時報), 2024-7-13: The Department of Pediatrics at National Taiwan University wanted to recruit 13 resident physicians this year, but only six were recruited.  The attending physician therefore has to be on duty at the front line in person.  This way going for a long time, the attending physician is also calling for resignation.  Pediatrics physicians usually spend more time and efforts on treating children, but have same health insurance benefits as other physicians.◆talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1656242

　

　

nTaiwan ranks No. 249 in World's Best Hospitals by Newsweek and Statista in 2023
 Newsweek: Among the hallmarks of great hospitals, however, are not just first-class care, first-class research and first-class innovation. The very best institutions also share another quality: consistency. The world's best hospitals consistently attract the best people and provide the best outcomes for patients as well as the most important new therapies and research.
　

World's Best Hospitals 2023
by Newsweek
comparison among Asia's countries
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-hospitals-2023

Asia's rank

country

total number of top 250  hospitals
1 Japan 18
2 S. Korea 18
3 Australia 7
4 Singapore 5
5 Israel 3
6 India 3
7 Thailand 1
8 UAE 1
9 Taiwan 1
Asia's China, etc are not included in survey list - 28 countries
Taiwan's NTU Hospital ranks world no. 249, behind selected hospitals of Thai. and UAE 

　

　

　

　

　

pic. :  The website-group ranks No.1   "physicians in Taiwan"  on US Google at  2024-2-28, 2024-1-16, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-10-1, 2023-8-25, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-24, 2023-3-26, 2022-9-19, 2022-7-1, 2022-6-13, 2022-5-28, 2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17,  2022-1-24,  2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-10-15, 2021-9-30,  2021-9-6, 2021-8-30, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-14, 2021-8-8, 2021-7-31, 2021-7-23, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-4, 2021-4-28, 2021-4-23, 2021-4-18, 2021-4-10, 2-14-2021, 3-8-2021; No.2 at 2024-8-8, 2021-10-28 ; among top ranks at 2023-1-1 ; top 3 "physicians in Taiwan" on US Google, 2023-3-17;  

　

　

World's Best Hospitals 2023
by Newsweek
comparison among Asia's countries
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-hospitals-2023
world rank hospital country
9 Singapore General Hospital Singapore
11 Sheba Medical center Israel
17 The Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Japan
28 St. Luke's Int'l Hospital Japan
29 Asan Medical center S. Korea
40 Samsung Medical Center S. Korea
47 Kameda Medical Center Japan
49 Seoul National Univ. Hospital S. Korea
66 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Australia
67 Severance Hospital Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
68 Kyushu Univ. Hospital Japan
69 Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical center Israel
73 Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health & medicine Japan
91 The Catholic Univ. Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital S. Korea
93 Seoul National Univ. - Bundang Hospital S. Korea
96 National Univ. Hospital Singapore
98 The Alfred Australia
105 Mount Elizabeth - Orchard Singapore
108 Keio Univ. Hospital Japan
112 Kyoto Univ. Hospital Japan
118 Nagoya Univ. Hospital Japan
119 Ajou Univ. Hospital S. Korea
122 All India Institute of Medical Science Delhi India
130 Tan Tock Seng Hospital Singapore
133 Gangnam Severance Hospital - Yonsei Univ. S. Korea
135 Gleneagles Hospital Singapore
140 Kangnuk Samsung Hospital S. Korea
142 The Cathilic Univ. Korea Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital S. Korea
144 Korea Univ. Anam Hospital S. Korea
150 Royal North Shore Hospital Australia
163 Medanta The Medicity India
168 Kurashiki Central Hospital Japan
175 Toranomon Hospital Japan
178 Rabin Medical Center Israel
181 Juntendo Univ. Hospital Japan
182 Bumrungrad Int'l Hospital Thailand
188 Royal Melbourne Hospital Parkville Australia
190 Japanese Red Cross Medical center Japan
190 Chung-Ang Univ. Hospital S. Korea
192 Inha Univ. Hospital S. Korea
196 Osaka Univ. Hospital Japan
199 Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi UAE
202 Hokkaido Univ. Hospital Japan
202 Ewha Womans Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
207 Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Australia
208 St Vincent's Hospital Fitzroy Australia
212 Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital Japan
222 Jikei Univ. Hospital Japan
224 Gold Coast Univ. Hospital Australia
229 KyungHee Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
233 Konkuk Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
242 Kyorin Univ. Hospital Japan
243 Daegu Catholic Univ. Medical Center S. Korea
246 Yokohama Municipal Citizen's Hospital Japan
247 Chungnam National Univ. Hospital S. Korea
249 National Taiwan Univ. Hospital Taiwan
250 Apollo Hospital Chennai India

Opinion - Why is Taiwan behind ?

(1)  United Daily (2023-3-14): The death rate of severe CovID patients in Taiwan is more than 85% udn.com/news/story/120940/7029331?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub120940_pulldownmenu_v2   Taiwan got highest CovID death rate in Asia and entire world again and again. /  "Medicine should be prescribed but not prescribed, medicine should be taken but not taken",  bad record of "failure to administer CovID remedy/medicine in time".  Bloomberg, 2021-7-25: Taiwan's medical care system is also run on a tight budget to keep costs affordable.  Newsweek: These are challenging times for hospitals. COVID-19 put unprecedented stress on health systems.

(2) Not patient-centered /  not easy to register clinic, 2-5 minutes for clinic diagnosis, 7-10 waiting days in emergency room to be hospitalized, shortage of some excellent medicines and newest equipments, the number of MDs per 10000 is very low, turnover rate of the nurses is high, some chronic disease items' score very low, poor internationalization, national health insurance issue, not to value privacy, medical disputes,  not enough resource for rural patients and the disadvantaged... for details pls. read the web-pages below

　

　

WHO -  number of MDs per 10,000 population
country MD/10000 country MD/10000 country MD/10000
Sweden 70.616  Iceland 38.914 Ukraine (2014) 29.898
Belgium (2021) 62.6  Mongolia(2018) 38.594 UAE 28.8
Norway 51.684  Nederland 38.4 Saudi Arabia 27.885
Spain 45.8  Russia 38.271  Japan 26.141
Germany (2021) 45.2  N. Korea (2017) 36.709 S Korea 25.078
Finland 43.3  Israel 36.5 Qatar (2018) 25
Italy (2021) 41.3 US 35.55 Singapore(2019) 24.3
Australia 41.108 NZ(2021) 35.162 China 23.873
Ireland 40.622 40.622 France 33.2 Malaysia 22.281
Kazakhstan 40.277 UK(2021) 31.711 Taiwan about 21.7

who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/medical-doctors-(per-10-000-population)    data.who.int/indicators/i/217795A    statistics 2020 (mostly)

　

Top 20 Taiwan's hospitals by Newsweek  2023
newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-hospitals-2023

Taiwan's rank

top 20 Taiwan's hospitals

score
1 NTU Hospital 97.2%
2 Taipei Veterans General Hospital 97.05
3 Kaoshiung Chang Gung Mem Hospital 88.64
4 National Cheng Hung Univ. Hospital 82.72
5 China Medical Univ. Hospital 82.58
6 Linkou Chang Gung Mem. Hospital 82.36
7 Taipei Chang Gung Mem. Hospital 80.76
8 Taichung Veterans Genral Hospital 80.44
9 Cathay General Hospital 79.16
10 Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital 78.97
11 Mackay Mem. Hospital 78.62
12 Tri-Service General Hospital- Songshan 78.25
13 Taoyuan Chang Gung Mem. Hospital 77.95
14 Taipei Tzu Chi General Hospital -  New Tpe 77.60
15 Chi Mei Medical Center - Tainan 76.61
16 Kaohsiung Medical Univ. Chung-Ho Mem. Hospita; 76.30
17 Chung Shan Medical Univ. Hospital - Taichung 75.58
18 Taipei Municipal Wangfang Hospital 75.23
19 Hualin Tzu Chi General Hospital 74.99
20 Chiayi Chang Gung Mem. Hospital - Puzi 74.22

　

★  Taiwan's rankings in medical education
In Nature Index 2023, "Health Science" , National Taiwan University ranks No.32 among universities in Asia，behind China, S. Korea, Japan, Singapore etc.  In Times Higher Education, "Medicine and Dentistry",  National Taiwan University ranks No.152。Taiwan's Taipei Medical University ranks No. 401-500, Cheng-Kung University ranks No. 501-600 。In US News "Best Universities for Clinical Medicine",  National Taiwan University ranks behind China, S. Korea, Japan, Singapore etc. 

　

★  Taiwan's higher education rankings

In Times Higher Education 2024, National Taiwan University ranks behind Asian countries - China, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, S. Korea.   In Quacquarelli Symonds，QS  UK 2024, National Taiwan University ranks behind Asian countries - China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, S. Korea, Malaysia.  In CWUR 2023 National Taiwan University ranks behind countries of Asia & Pacific, Japan, S. Korea, China, Australia, Israel, Singapore.   In Nature Index 2023, National Taiwan University ranks No.208 behind China, Japan, Singapore, S. Korea, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, India.    full text

　

CTS TV News  (2024-1-16  華視資訊): The average age of obstetrician and gynecologist is so high that Taiwan may need some Doctors from East-South Asia.  Furthermore, There are shortages of MDs in Internal Medicine(內科)、surgical(外科)、obstetrics and gynecology(婦產科)、Pediatrics(兒科)、Emergency (急診科).   United Daily (2024-3-9): 聯合報 (2024-3-9): Due to the National Health Insurance, 200+ regional hospitals were closed,  today's Taiwan medical systems look like a "M" shape.   Now some more large hospitals are upgraded by the gov. to the medical center hospitals, which may further extrude small-size hospitals and it will be harder to put Hierarchic Care system  into practice. udn.com/news/story/7339/7819075?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7339_pulldownmenu_v2 施壽全／馬偕醫院前院長

　

nPhysicians and medical personnel in Taiwan　

　

Statista (2024-9-26): As of the end of 2023, there were about 54,016 physicians registered in Taiwan.
　

Statista: Number of medical personnel in Taiwan as of 2022, by type, released in 2023
statista.com/statistics/946929/taiwan-number-of-medical-personnel-by-type/
medical type number of personnel
Reg. nurses and professional nurses 185,778
Physicians 53,063
Pharmacists and assistant Pharmacists 36,336
Dentists 15,996
Medical technologists and technicians 10,400
Physical therapists and technicians, occupational therapists and technicians 14,121
Doctors of Chinese medicine 7,671
Dietians 3,588
Midwives and Reg. professional midwives 201
　

　

Statista: Number of medical personnel in Taiwan as of 2020, by type, Jan 27, 2022
statista.com/statistics/946929/taiwan-number-of-medical-personnel-by-type/
medical type number of personnel
Reg. nurses and professional nurses 178,498
Physicians 51,045
Pharmacists and assistant Pharmacists 35,734
Dentists 15,429
Medical technologists and technicians 10,179
Physical therapists and technicians, occupational therapists and technicians 9,073
Doctors of Chinese medicine 7,302
Dietians 3,405
Midwives and Reg. professional midwives 192
Dental assistants 29
At the end of 2021, there were approximately 183.3 thousand registered and professional nurses employed in Taiwan

　

                             Statista: Num. of physicians in Taiwan from '12 to '22           
    https://www.statista.com/statistics/860217/taiwan-physician-number/

yr

 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

number

 40,938 41,965 42,961 44,006 44,849 46,356 47,471 49,542 51045 52175 53063

increase

 　 1,027 996 1,045 843 1,507 1,115 2,071 1503 1130 888
　

☉

     Statista: Number of medical personnel density in Taiwan from 2009 to 2019 
 Number of medical personnel per 10,000 inhabitants    
          statista.com/statistics/324725/taiwan-medical-personnel-density/      published 2022-1-27

yr

 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

number

 101.02 104.12 107.75 110.78 113.7 115.88 119.41 122.84 127.18 132.64 138.41

　

n news
☉ Taiwan's United Daily (2023-11-14): In recent years, there has been a massive exodus of nursing staff, with nearly 5,000 nurses every year, resulting in a serious shortage of manpower at the care site. However, the government has turned a blind eye to this and has placed a lot of risks and responsibilities on CovID front-line nurses, without paying their subsidies. Furthermore, in order to make up for the manpower gap of nursing staff, the national nursing examination (護理國考) has lowered the threshold; the proportion of more difficult subjects such as "Basic Medicine"(「基礎醫學」) has been reduced from 20% to 10%, regardless of the quality of medical care...

☉  Taiwan's United Daily (2024-5-1): There is no penalty for those hospitals violating the official ratio of patients per nurse .  udn.com/news/story/7339/7934560?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7339_pulldownmenu_v2

　

Yahoo (2023-11-20) Taiwan News Formosa (2023-11-19)
medical personnel protest the government's expansion of of enrollment quotas in medical schools... (濫開學校招生名額，崩壞已經超飽和醫事人力，完全無視「總量管制原則」)  tw.news.yahoo.com/黑十字運動-凱道的醫事人員怒火抗議-083200983.html medical personnel are still overworked due to a staff shortage. Despite an expansion of enrollment quotas in medical schools' departments of traditional Chinese medicine, pharmacy, and nursing, as well as the lowering of the threshold for passing the national doctors exams, the demand is still greater than the supply. This has led to a medical workers’ protest on Sunday. The rally in front of the Presidential Office Building was jointly conducted by medical workers from five branches of medicine.   .youtube.com/watch?v=hMada7WkFcU 

　

☉ Taiwan's United Daily (2023-11-13): There is a serious shortage of Medical-Doctor officers in the military troops. However, the National Defense Medical Center cannot increase enrollment because the medical field and educational circles are unwilling to relax the total quota control (不願放寬總量管制).
　

☉ United Daily(2023-8-25): Taiwan's hospitals reject cancer patients being hospitalized under the status of National Health Insurance to avoid the authority turning down hospital's application for payment by the strategy of a sum and canceling after confirming.  Many patients faced with the dilemma of being unable to afford expensive cancer medicines because the policy of private insurance companies does not cover out-of-pocket medicine expenses.  udn.com/news/story/7266/7393297?from=redpush

　

The OECD Library : physicians per 1,000 people
main countries in OECD
OECD average: 3.6

oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/b39949d7-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/b39949d7-en
rankings country  Practising Doctors
per 1,000 people (2019)
1 Greece 6.2
2 Austria 5.3
3 Portugal 5.3
4 Norway 5.0
6 Spain 4.4
7 Germany 4.4
8 Swiss 4.4
9 Sweden 4.3
10 Denmark 4.2
11 Russia 4.2
13 Italy 4.1
15 Australia 3.8
16 Nederland 3.7
20 New Zealand 3.4
　 Israel 3.3
　 France 3.2
　 Belgium 3.2
　 UK 3.0
　 Canada 2.7
　 USA 2.6
　 Japan 2.5
　 S. Korea 2.5
　 China 2.2
　 Turkey 2.0
　 India 0.9
　 Indonesia 0.5

The World Bank : physicians per 10,000 people


main countries in Asia & Pacific

　

data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS
Asia's rankings country  physicians
per 10,000 people
1 Mongolia 39 (2018)
2 Australia 38 (2018)
3 N Korea 37 (2017)
4 New Zealand 34 (2018)
5 Saudi Arabia 26 (2018)
6 UAE 25 (2018)
7 Japan 25 (2018)
8 S. Korea 24 (2018)
9 Singapore 23 (2016)
10 China 20 (2017)
11 Malaysia 15 (2015)
12 India 9 (2019)
13 Thai 9  (2019)
14 Vietnam 8  (2016)
15 Myanmar 7 (2019)
16 Philippines 6 (2017)
17 Indonesia 5 (2019)
18 Lao PDR 4 (2017)


　

Wikipedia (2021-5-5) and Liberty Times (2020-1-6),  Taiwan's doctor-to-population ratio (see pic. below) almost hit lowest in Asia.  WEF<Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 9-4-2019): Taiwan's Health & Hygiene (including "physicians density" ) score 6.0 is worse than that of  Japan,  Korea, and Australia, Mongolia.   According to  WEF <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 4-6-2017), Taiwan's "Physician density" ranks world No. 65 (No. 57 in 2015's report).  
CommonWealth, 2022-4-12: Taiwan has an average 21.7 physicians per 10,000 population, which lags far behind the median of 33.6 physicians for the OECD countries (only Turkey is behind Taiwan).  In terms of healthcare's share of the national budget, which stands at 11 percent, behind the OECD average of 15 percent, which constricts the industry's growth potential...10- physicians per 10,000 inhabitantsdoes not even meet the lowest standard of the World Health Organization.  english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=3198#:~:text=Taiwan%20has%20an%20average%2021.7,physicians%20for%20the%20OECD%20countries.

☉

☉

　

　


pic. :  No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Yandex of Russia,
 test at 2024-1-1, 2023-11-13, 2023-10-1, 2023-8-25, 2023-6-22, 2023-4-1, 2022-11-1, 2022-10-21, 2022-7-21, 2022-7-1, 2022-6-12, 2022-5-28, 2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11,
2021-10-28, 2021-10-15, 2021-9-30, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7,  2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-16; No.2 at 2023-1-1, 2022-9-19

　

　

　

　

n news

☉ Lancet, 2023-6-24  : lots of arguments have emerged about applying artificial intelligence to medical education in Taiwan - whether quickly produced new doctors have sufficient humanity in clinical practice.    thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00506-8/fulltext
☉SKY News Australia, 2023-5-4: Australian student Alex Shorey has been fighting for his life after consuming rat poison in early April – the ingestion led to internal bleeding and organ failure.  The 24-year-old's family raised over $200,000 dollars to charter a specialised medical evacuation which flew him from Taiwan to Brisbane where he was taken to hospital for further treatment.   msn.com/en-au/news/other/poisoned-australian-student-returns-home-from-taiwan/ar-AA1aHCva  NEWS Australia, 2023-5-4:  https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/queensland-student-alex-shorey-medically-evacuated-from-taiwan-after-being-poisoned-with-rat-poison/news-story/5464851d30c3808c356c2afa9d7c7fb0  
☉ DailyMail (UK), 2023-4-28:  Young Australian student on his dream overseas exchange program is fighting for his life in Taiwan after eating food laced with rat poison.  His Doctor father said: "He had been misdiagnosed in Taiwan with an immune disorder".  Alex is at the Taipei Medical University Hospital ..."The medical services in Taiwan don't currently have the right treatments or drugs to stabilise his condition, Alex's condition has grown worse and he needs to be flown to the Royal Prince Albert Hospital in Sydney via a specialised medical flight retrieval service".  dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12023841/Toowoomba-student-exchange-Taiwan-fighting-life-eating-food-laced-rat-poison.html  

　

nCovID-19 in Taiwan　

New York Times,  2023-2-16 News briefing
CovID death per 100,000 people since 2020; comparison among main Asian countries
Australia Taiwan S. Korea Indonesia Japan New Zealand Singapore China (official count)
74 70 65 59 55 50 30 6
China's official toll includes only infected people who died in hospitals

　

New York Times,  Feb. 23, 2023  12:12pm
Taiwan's death rate still ranks world No.1
nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
world rank country cases per 100,000 14 days changed deaths per 100,000
1 Taiwan 67 -34% 0.25
6 Australia 10 -16 0.11
7 Japan 14 -54 0.10
23 NZ 24 -7 0.06
31 Hong Kong - - 0.04
35 S. Korea 20 -26 0.03
64 Malaysia <1 -14 <0.01
about 170 Singapore 0 -100 -
about 200 China - -100 -
world No. 66 Thailand,  No. 67 UAE,  No. 68 Indonesia,  71 Pakistan,  72 India,  80  Bangladesh,  127 Cambodia,  133 Laos,   147 Macao

　

Taiwanese government said at 2023-2-6 that the pandemic of third wave started from middle Dec. 2022, the number of deaths and the curve is relatively smooth; however, Taiwan's deaths per 100,000 ranked No.1 among main Asia countries since Oct. 2022, and then jumped to world No.1 at Feb. 2023.   Taiwanese government said (2023-2-17) the pandemic is ending, but the death rate at 2023-2-23 is still world No.1, cases per 100,000 ranks world No.2  (next to Nauru), according to New York Times.

　

According to New York Times (2023-2-6), Taiwan's CovID-19 death rate (deaths per 100,000)  ranks world No.1.   Taiwan's cases per 100,000 ranks world No.1.   In accord with NY Times (2023-2-14), only 17 countries'  "fully vaccinated" rate is higher than  Taiwan's 87%.  

New York Times,  Feb. 6, 2023
nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
world rank country Asia's rank deaths per 100,000 Fully Vaccinated
1 Taiwan 1 0.26 87%
2 Finland 　 0.26 79
3 Sweden 　 0.23 74
4 Bermuda 　 0.22 75
5 Latvia 　 0.21 68
6 Japan 2 0.21 82
12 Australia 3 0.12 85
29 S. Korea 4 0.05 86
35 China 5 0.03 91
49 Macau 6 0.02 100
62 Philippines 7 0.01 68
71 NZ 8 <0.01 84

　

New York Times,  Feb. 6, 2023
nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
world rank country cases per 100,000 14 days changed deaths daily average deaths per 100,000
1 Taiwan 111 +39% 63 0.26
4 Japan 32 -55 262.6 0.21
5 S.Korea 29 -43 27.7 0.05
7 NZ 23 - 0.3 <0.01
11 Australia 12 -23 30.4 0.12
19 Singapore 8 +26 0.1 <0.01
　 China 1 -79 468.3 0.03
　 world 3 -34% 2187 0.03

　

 So it might not be vaccination issue.  Taiwan had bad record of "failure to administer CovID remedy/medicine in time".  Bloomberg, 2021-7-25: Taiwan's medical care system is also run on a tight budget to keep costs affordable.  United Daily of Taiwan (2023-2-14):  clinical doctors fear one of the reasons of increasing number of CovID deaths is quite a lot of patients have not taken oral antiviral pills such as Paxlovid.   udn.com/news/story/120940/6969305?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub120940_pulldownmenu_v2   United Daily (2023-2-13): "Medicine should be prescribed but not prescribed, medicine should be taken but not taken".   United Daily (2023-2-23): Nearly 60% of Taiwanese aged 50+ have not vaccinated within 6 months. udn.com/news/story/120940/6989262?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub120940_pulldownmenu_v2

　

　

OurWorldData

COVID-19 vaccine boosters administered per 100 people  till Feb 4, 2023

ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-vaccine-booster-doses-per-capita?country=SGP~OWID_WRL~TWN~KOR~HKG~JPN~AUS~CHN~FIN~SWE~BMU

Total number of vaccine booster doses administered, divided by the total population of the country. Booster doses are doses administered beyond those prescribed by the original vaccination protocol.

　

 Japan ( 138+  ) > Taiwan( 100+) > Sweden (93+) > HK (92+)>  S. Korea>  Singapore> Finland (77+) > Australia (75+)> China (68+) > Nermuda

　


   In accord with Oxford University , ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths (2022-12-26), Taiwan's "How long does it take the number of total confirmed deaths to double" ranks world No. 4 , only next to Macau, Micronesia, and Marshall Islands.

　

Global comparison: where are confirmed CovID-19 deaths increasing most rapidly?

How long does it take the number of total  confirmed deaths to double

Taiwan ranks world No. 4
Oxford University , ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths   2022-12-26
location how long does it take for the number total confirmed deaths to double total confirmed deaths daily new confirmed deaths
Macau 9 13 +0 new
Micronesia 102 58 +0 new
Marshall Islands 131 17 +0 new
Taiwan 170 15,099 +24 new
According to Oxford Univ., ourworldindata.org/covid-cases (2022-12-26),  Taiwan's "daily new confirmed cases" ranks world No.4; Taiwan's "how long does it take for the number total confirmed cases to double" ranks world No. 9 (it takes 148 days to double)


New York Times (2022-11-15), Taiwan's CovID-19 deaths per 100,000 ranks last among main Asian countries. WSWS.org, 2022-12-1: In the past week alone, ... placing Taiwan in the top ten in the world for cases per million people. It also currently has the second-highest deaths per million. Total overall cases stand at 8,313,366 with 14,334 deaths, most occurring since April. wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/01/bqmc-d01.html  According to New York Times (2022-10-25), Taiwan's CovID-19 cases per 100,000 and deaths per 100,000 both are the worst among main Asian countries.

The China Times, editorial (2022-11-23):  Taiwan's CovID-19 case-fatality rate (確診致死率) in recent two weeks ranks world No.3, such a bad record lasts at least two weeks. chinatimes.com/opinion/20221123004522-262101?chdtv

The China Times (2022-10-26): Taiwan's confirmed cases per 1000,000 in last 7 days ranks world last.  (chinatimes.com/opinion/20221025005192-262101?chdtv)
　

New York Times, 2022-11-15
 Coronavirus World Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak   
nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
country/region Death daily per100,000 Deaths daily avg.
Taiwan 0.24 56.9
Hong Kong 0.13 10
New Zealand 0.1 5.1
S Korea 0.09 45.1
Japan 0.06 69.7
Australia 0.06 14.3
Malaysia 0.03 8.9
Indonesia 0.02 41.4
Philippines 0.02 17.4
Singapore 0.02 0.9
Thailand <0.01 6
India <0.01 4
Saudi Arabia <0.01 2.1
Bangladesh <0.01 0.4
Sri Lanka <0.01 0.3
Pakistan <0.01 0.3
Mongolia <0.01 0.1
Myanmar <0.01 0
UAE - 0
Qatar - 0
Nepal - 0
Laos - 0
Cambodia - 0
Vietnam - 0
China - 0
Macau - 0

New York Times, 2022-10-25
Coronavirus World Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak   
nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
　
country/region cases daily avg. per100,000 Deaths daily avg. Deaths per100,000
World 364,848 5 1,488.9 0.02
Taiwan 36,863 155 61.9 0.26
Singapore 5,941 104 1.7 0.03
Hong Kong 5,438 73 8.3 0.11
New Zealand 3,260 66 4.4 0.09
S Korea 23,025 45 16.9 0.03
Japan 34,409 27 57.3 0.05
Australia 4634 18 12.9 0.05
Qatar 471 17 0.1 <0.01
Malaysia 1932 6 3 <0.01
UAE 282 3 0.1 <0.01
Philippines 1541 1 37.9 0.04
Indonesia 2201 <1 18.6 <0.01
Saudi Arabia 228 <1 1.9 <0.01
Mongolia 21 <1 0 -
Vietnam 593 <1 0.4 <0.01
Thailand 374 <1 5.7 <0.01
Myanmar 195 <1 0.9 <0.01
Laos 12 <1 0 -
India 1760 <1 9.5 <0.01
Bangladesh 176 <1 1.0 <0.01
China 844 <1 0 -
SriLanka 9 <1 0.6 <0.01

　

Global comparison: where are confirmed CovID-19 deaths increasing most rapidly?
How long does it take the number of total  confirmed deaths to double
Oxford University , ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths   2022-10-8
Asian country days to double deaths Asian country days to double deaths
Taiwan  106  Sri Lanka 405
New Zealand 110    Philippines 412
Australia 149 Cambodia 426
S Korea 196  Myanmar 431
 HK 204  Indonesia 441  
 Japan  225 Bangladesh 462
 Laos 278   India 511
Singapore 292 China 955
Vietnam 349  Asia 481
Thai 374     world 527
 Mongolia 380 　 　
Malaysia 397 　 　
1. Micronesia   38 days, 2 Marshall Island 51 days, 3 Macau 85 days, Taiwan ranks world No.4 

　

　

new CovID-19 cases per 1M
Oxford University , ourworldindata.org/covid-cases    2022-10-8
country new cases per 1M country new cases per 1M
Taiwan 1.88K Philippines 19.8
Singapore 840.28  Vietnam  9.93
HK 500.82 Thai  8.85
S Korea  453.83  India  1.94
NZ 277.1   China 0.66  
 Japan  265.1 Sri Lanka 0.49  
Australia 202.5  Cambodia 0.31
Malaysia 48.27  Macau  0
Mongolia 24.15 　 　
Asia  26.62 , N America  71, Taiwan ranks world No.3, No.1 Micronesia  10.16K, No.2 Saint Helena   8.06K

　

◆ Nikkei Asia (Japan) , 2022-7-8: Nikkei CovID-19 Recovery Index: Taiwan, at 112th, is still grappling with tens of thousands of cases every day. The current wave has cost the island nearly 6,500 lives. ( Taiwan ranks last in Asia & Pacific )
 ◆ Bloomberg's CovID Resilience Ranking, 2022-6-29: But they've been unable to outrun omicron: Taiwan and Hong Kong both saw deaths spike as more virus circulated (bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/)

◆ Global Times, 2022-6-10: "The handling of outbreak also proved that Taiwan's medical and health facilities are inadequate and cannot take care of a large number of patients at the same time, which is completely inconsistent with Taiwan's claim that it has advanced medical and health infrastructure", "In any place where a public health crisis was so badly handled and people's lives were treated carelessly with no respect, the authorities should resign." 

◆ United Daily 》editorial, 2022-9-6: The Covid wave is going to be fueled by the omicron BA.5 which was foreseen a month ago; however, Taiwan has not prepared at all.  udn.com/news/story/7338/6591158?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2 

　

Statista, 2022-7-27: Coronavirus (COVID-19)  death rate
in countries with confirmed deaths and over 1,000 reported cases
as of April 26, 2022, by country
 comparisons among main Asian countries

statista.com/statistics/1105914/coronavirus-death-rates-worldwide/
countries World ranks cases in last 7 days Death Rate
NZ Cook Islands No.1 526 0.02
Bhutan No.2 3317 0.03
New Zealand No.5 45748 0.07
Singapore No.8 16728 0.11
Australia No.9 247199 0.12
S Korea No.11 426645 0.13
Qatar No.19 546 0.19
Mongolia No.24 196 0.24
UAE No.26 1459 0.26
Israel No.26 21334 0.26
Laos No.34 4515 0.36
Japan No.38 244929 0.38
Vietnam No.42 82453 0.41
Thailand No.71 110385 0.6
China No.74 179114 0.6
Malaysia No.93 31317 0.8
Lebanon No.105 651 0.9
Saudi Arabia No.125 678 1.2
India No.128 12503 1.21
Nepal No.129 78 1.22
Taiwan No.143 23976 1.39

　

　

Taiwan's COVID-19 performance

World Index

Taiwan's ranks

link
　 　 　
Statista, 2022-7-27: Coronavirus (COVID-19)  death rate, in countries with confirmed deaths and over 1,000 reported cases
as of April 26, 2022, by country		 Taiwan ranks No.143, behind NZ, Singapore, Australia, S Korea, Qatar, Mongolia, Israel, Laos, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, India, Nepal, etc statista.com/statistics/1105914/coronavirus-death-rates-worldwide/
Nikkei CovID-19 Recovery Index, as of Jul. 31 Taiwan ranks No. 79 , behind Cambodia, Vietnam, UAE, S. Korea,  China, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Mongolia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia,  etc asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Recovery-Index/Japan-tumbles-in-COVID-recovery-ranking-as-infections-surge
Bloomberg's CovID Resilience Ranking, 2022-6-29 Taiwan ranks next to the last bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/
Bloomberg CovID Resilience Ranking   2022-5-27 Taiwan ranks the 3rd from the end    bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/spanish.html
Bloomberg CovID Resilience Ranking   2021-10-28 Taiwan's "3-month case fatality rate ", 7.7 %, ranks world worst bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/
Bloomberg CovID Resilience Ranking  2021-9-28 Taiwan's "3-month case fatality rate ", 13.4 %, ranks world worst bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/
Nikkei CovID-19 Recovery Index, as of Aug. 31 (released at 2022-9-9) Taiwan ranks No. 57 , behind Vietnam, Cambodia, UAE, S. Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Mongolia, China, Australia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, etc asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Recovery-Index/China-slips-in-COVID-recovery-ranking-with-fresh-lockdowns

full details
　

　

  ◆ Global Times, 2022-6-10: "The handling of outbreak also proved that Taiwan's medical and health facilities are inadequate and cannot take care of a large number of patients at the same time, which is completely inconsistent with Taiwan's claim that it has advanced medical and health infrastructure", "In any place where a public health crisis was so badly handled and people's lives were treated carelessly with no respect, the authorities should resign."   globaltimes.cn/page/202206/1267806.shtml
　

  ◆ al jazeera, 2022-5-30: Taiwan is now battling its worst-ever outbreak as authorities report 70,000-90,000 cases each day. The fatalities have notably included the sudden deaths of several very young children, which many Taiwanese attribute to failures of the healthcare system.    aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/30/brawl-breaks-out-in-taiwan-legislature 

  ◆  China Times (中時), 2022-6-22:  Such a high death rate absolutely is caused by the government's and hospitals' intentionally doing nothing (故意不作為)，the government used the name of "keeping medical capacity" to block some patients,  ... the hospitals prefer confirmed mild CovID illness patients to max their profits, that's why so many serious cases died outside of the hospitals (政府以保障醫療量能之名，行減收病人之實，是罪魁禍首)。 brief: chinatimes.com/opinion/20220622004099-262104?chdtv  王任賢


nMeasuring Taiwan's health systems　

Lancet / Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services
Taiwan and some other countries of Asia & Pacific

　

Lancet, universal health coverage

Singapore 92 77 100 98 95 93 99 99 75 100 94 99 93 89 99 77 100 100 76 95 79 94 100 100
Japan 96 60 100 92 97 98 95 99 78 92 98 100 99 97 100 99 98 100 83 96 92 89 100 98
Korea 89 78 100 78 97 97 99 100 43 96 96 99 99 92 99 100 88 66 70 95 99 76 99 96
Australia 89 88 85 92 91 96 100 99 85 99 87 98 100 86 100 100 88 78 70 92 67 67 100 98
NZ 83 83 80 76 90 95 100 100 79 100 92 99 85 89 98 83 76 72 62 83 57 64 99 99
Kuwait 82 85 66 89 95 98 100 97 83 99 73 87 74 91 81 73 85 92 66 80 69 77 100 99
Qatar 80 71 69 59 99 93 100 99 67 97 72 85 69 91 78 75 97 49 58 97 60 95 100 97
Taiwan 79 96 84 75 100 98 100 99 46 99 88 93 89 97 91 90 82 44 55 55 89 73 99 97
Chn 70 96 70 75 98 99 99 90 32 97 72 91 60 88 86 66 43 80 61 41 86 65 98 98
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30750-9/fulltext

Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services, 2020-10-17

　

Lancet / Health Access and Quality Index
 Taiwan and some other countries of Asia & Pacific
ranks country score
6 Australia 90
11 Japan 89
21 Singapore 86
21 New Zealand 86
21 South Korea 86
27 Qatar 85
32 Kuwait 82
37 Lebanon 80
40 Saudi Arabia 79
45 Taiwan 78
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)30818-8/fulltext   2017-7-15

Taiwan abused power in  CovID-19  CovID-Omicron

　

Our World In Data. org
(produced as a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Oxford, )
Global comparison /  where are confirmed deaths increasing most rapidly

How long did it take for the number of total confirmed deaths to double;  2022-6-9
Taiwan 13 days Thai 265 Qatar 423
Montserrat 13 Malaysia 279 Pakistan 428
Samoa 45 Sri Lanka 287 Lebanon 456
NZ 49 Japan 298 UAE 471
S. Korea 83 Philippines 299 Saudi Arab 624
Hong Kong 86 Cambodia 307 China 836
Australia 119 Myanmar 313 N. Korea n/a
Laos 159 Indonesia 323 　 　
Singapore 194 Bangladesh 344 　 　
Vietnam 231 Nepal 385 　 　
Mongolia 265 India 392 　 　
world 415 days, Europe 434 days, high-income 471 days, N. America 473 ;  ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths

　

◆ Guardian (UK), 2022-5-9: Once a zero-Covid poster child, Taiwan learns to live with the virus /  experts predict... up to 16,000 dead.   Rules and regulations change almost daily and incrementally. The death of a two-year-old boy last month highlighted communication failures exacerbated by Taiwan’s entrenched bureaucracy.  hospital ...colleagues are understaffed and overworked, there is not enough protective equipment or backup to replace staff who go on leave because they caught the virus...and are still subject to a pandemic ban on health workers leaving the country. theguardian.com/world/2022/may/09/once-a-zero-covid-poster-child-taiwan-learns-to-live-with-the-virus ◆ Nikkei Asia (Japan), 2022-5-5: Taiwan's ranking has plunged (down to No.94, behind most countries in Asia & Pacific, e.g., Japan, Korea, Singapore) in the latest edition of Nikkei's COVID-19 Recovery Index as the island transitions from a strict zero-virus strategy to living with the respiratory illness, even as infections surge.  South Korea ranking soars as infections plunge and mobility curbs ease.  newagebd.net, 2022-5-7: The index is maintained by Nikkei, Japan's leading business publication group that includes the Nikkei, Nikkei Asia, and the Financial Times (of London), assessing countries and regions on infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility. asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Recovery-Index/Taiwan-China-tumble-in-Nikkei-COVID-Recovery-Index-amid-outbreaks

　

◆  Financial Times (UK) , 2022-4-18  (ft.com/content/dd4a3bd0-8973-4222-9eed-f9bfe4c37691): Ho Mei-shang, an adjunct fellow at Academia Sinica says It would be a failure if some people even did not get the chance to get into the health facilities. "We must preserve the capacity of our health system for those who need it.". ◆  United Daily, 2022-5-28: people usually get antiviral pills at the 4th or 5th day since becoming ill, increasing the probability that mild case worsens to moderate-severe case.  udn.com/news/story/7338/6346575?from=udn_ch2_menu_v2_main_cate
 ◆  Yahoo Taiwan, 2022-5-19: Nearly 80% of local CovID severe cases died this year. Experts believe that this reflects the problem of "failure to administer drugs in time "  tw.news.yahoo.com/社會-重症近8成死亡-專家疑未能及時投藥-235256426.html
 ◆  United Daily, 2022-5-22: Since April, about 20% of the deceased died within 5 days of being diagnosed, and about 40% of the deceased died quickly after diagnosis or were not diagnosed at all. Now we must try our best to achieve early diagnosis and early drug administration udn.com/news/story/120940/6331358?from=udn_ch2cate6638sub120940_pulldownmenu_v2   udn.com/news/story/120940/6346601  2022-5-28 ◆ United Daily, 2022-4-8, editorial: Taiwan's testing capacity and medication are obviously not good enough - Remdesivir only 16,000,  Paxlovid 4,000+ available.  udn.com/news/story/7338/6223069?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2 ◆  China Times, editorial, 2022-4-8: on average, one out of 1000 people can have antiCovID medication.  chinatimes.com/opinion/20220407004272-262101?chdtv 

◆ China Times, 2022-4-19: Former medical chief 邱淑媞 : Instead of suggesting that the government expanding emergency quarantine rooms, or taking better anti-epidemic measures, Taiwan's medical Doctors ask politicians to push CovID-19 Omicron patients back home which might infect their families.  Irresponsible politicians neither provide the public N95 nor instruct how to use HEPA... chinatimes.com/opinion/20220419004783-262104?chdtv

　

STATISTA   2022-5-5

 Coronavirus (COVID-19) death rate in countries with confirmed deaths
and over 1,000 reported cases as of April 26, 2022, by country
　
Characteristic (main country in Asia & Pacific) Death rate
Indonesia 2.58
Philippines 1.63
Taiwan 1.39
India 1.21
Saudi Arabia 1.2
Malaysia 0.8
China 0.69
Thailand 0.67
Vietnam 0.41
Japan 0.38
Laos 0.36
UAE 0.26
Mongolia 0.24
Qatar 0.19
S. Korea 0.13
Australia 0.12
Singapore 0.11
New Zealand 0.07
NZ Cook islands 0.02

statista.com/statistics/1105914/coronavirus-death-rates-worldwide/

　

STATISTA, 2022-4-19

 Coronavirus (COVID-19) death rate in countries
with confirmed deaths
and over 1,000 reported cases
 as of April 7, 2022, by country

　

Taiwan's death rate is highest
 among
major countries in Asia & Pacific
　
country Death rate(%) Confirmed cases number of deaths
Taiwan* 3.38 25,225 853
Indonesia 2.58 6,026,324 155,464
Sri Lanka 2.49 662,342 16,486
Cambodia 2.25 135,834 3,055
Pakistan 1.99 1,526,093 30,361
Philippines 1.61 3,680,244 59,422
Bangladesh 1.49 1,951,903 29,123
India 1.21 43,031,958 521,530
Saudi Arabia 1.2 751,404 9,053
China 0.88 1,495,380 13,098
Malaysia 0.82 4,280,591 35,192
Thailand 0.68 3,807,908 25,788
Vietnam 0.43 9,980,464 42,712
Japan 0.42 6,830,997 28,462
Laos 0.36 188,985 684
Australia 0.13 4,910,819 6,495
South Korea 0.12 14,778,405 18,381
Singapore 0.11 1,123,886 1,287
New Zealand 0.06 741,987 426
statista.com/statistics/1105914/coronavirus-death-rates-worldwide/   2022-4-19

　
Oral antiviral pills for CovID
USA Taiwan
CNBC, 2022-3-1: President Joe Biden said Americans will be able to get Covid antiviral pills (Paxlovid or Merck's molnupiravir) for free if they test positive at a pharmacy. ♣China Times, CTV news, 2022-4-27: oral antiviral pills for CovID are not enough
 ♣UDN, 2022-5-1: Americans can receive Paxlovid for free, by contrast, CDC asks Taiwanese to prepare medicines for curing a cold.  udn.com/news/story/7339/6279548?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7339_pulldownmenu_v2
 ♣TVBS, TTV, 2022-4-28: CovID Patient aged 60+ was not allowed to stay in hospital or have Paxlovid, and died in the next day    news.ttv.com.tw/news/11104280010800I


In Bloomberg's "Winners and Losers" from a year of ranking Covid resilience (Nov. 25, 2021), Taiwan was ranked No.31 among 53 countries.  Bloomberg, 2021-10-28: Taiwan's 3-month case-fatality rate is 7.7%, (2021-9-28: 13.4%) the worst worldwide, compared with Singapore's 0.2~0.3%, China 0%.  Taiwan's case-fatality rate is 4.38% (JHU, 2022-2-17), compared with 5.015% (2021-12-28) and 5.17% (2021-10-28,  coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/taiwan, Microsoft Bing statistics), and 4.9% (July 2021) which ranked 8th highest worldwide according to Johns Hopkins University, China Post, 2021-7-14.  Statista : Taiwan's CovID-19 patient recovery rate (2020-1-22 ~ 2022-2-13) is 70.23%, Microsoft Bing statistics, 2022-2-14: recovered 0;     The father of CoronaVirus in Taiwan, 賴明詔, said Singapore's medical tech. is better, and the culture is different. ( e.g., Financial Times, 2021-6-1: Another problem appears to be cultural...other public health experts have been discouraged from challenging Health Minister......The country ... was not prepared for a surge of infections).  Guardian, 2021-6-7: Taiwan authorities hadn’t kept up with new scientific knowledge around virulent new strains...   theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/07/a-victim-of-its-own-success-how-taiwan-failed-to-plan-for-a-major-covid-outbreak  Statista, 2021-9-24: The number of physicians in Taiwan in 2020 is 51045, compared with 49542 in 2019.   The PCR test capacity in Singapore is 5+ times of that in Taiwan (https://udn.com/news/story/121823/5493969?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2) , but Singapore's population is about 1/4 Taiwan's.  FTV, 2021-7-12: Taiwan's CoVID high death rate is caused by inadequate medicine.  UDN, 2021-6-7: It's hard and sometimes too late for CovID-19 patients to have Remdesivir.  Bloomberg, 2021-7-25: Taiwan’s medical care system is run on a tight budget to keep costs affordable.  Taipei Medical University professor 楊哲銘 comments Taiwan's medical quality is no longer good.  Taiwan's former medical chief 楊志良 (chinatimes.com/opinion/20210804005734-262104?chdtv) criticizes that the health & medical system has been damaged.  full text: CovID-19 in Taiwan   There's no any Taiwan's hospitals selected in "World's Best Hospitals - Newsweek" in 2020 and 2021.

　

 ABC News, 2021-11-11: Taiwan did not have any COVID-19 antibody drugs when the outbreak exploded in May.  Taiwan had a limited stock of remdesivir, an anti-viral drug from Gilead, "There wasn’t enough, you could only get it if you applied for it from the central government,”.  Further, it wasn't covered by the island's national health insurance scheme, making it affordable only for a small percent of the population.  That antibody treatments would not have made a huge difference in the number of deaths given a culture of being cautious in prescribing medications.   ref. to abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/taiwanese-families-covid-19-deaths-happen-81105354

　

　


 No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on ecosia of Germany,  2022-10-21, 2022-7-21, 2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-9-30, 2021-9-6,  2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-31, 2021-5-25, 2021-4-27,  2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020

　

　

      

pic. : This websites group's ranked No.1 on Yahoo Taiwan  by keyword  "physicians in Taiwan" , 2022-7-21,  2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-9-30, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-31, 5- 19-2019.  pic. : No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan"on Yahoo Taiwan, 2022-7-1,2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-10-28, 2021-10-15, 2021-9-30, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-16, 2021-5-31, 5- 19-2019.

　

　

    

 pic. left: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on ecosia of Germany,  2022-7-21, 2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-9-30, 2021-9-6,  2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-31, 2021-5-25, 2021-4-27,  2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020 ;  pic. right: No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on ecosia of Germany ,  2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-10-28, 2021-10-15, 2021-9-30, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-6-16,   2021-5-31;   

　

　

    

 pic. right: No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on SwissCows , 2021-11-11, 2021-10-28, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24,   2021-6-16, 2021-5-31; pic.: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" SwissCows (Switzerland) , 2021-11-11, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-24, 2021-5-25, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020  

　

　

      

  pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Yahoo Japan (largest serach engine in Japan) , 2021-9-6,  2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11; No.2 at 2022-4-23, 2022-3-12, 2021-11-12; No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" and "physicians in Taiwan" on Duckduckgo , 2022-2-17, 2022-1-24,  2021-12-31, 2021-9-30, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-11

　

　

pic. : This websites group http://intlHumanRights.com was ranked No.1 on Yandex  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at 2022-7-20, 2022-6-30, 2022-6-11, 2022-5-27, 2022-4-22. 2022-3-11, 2022-2-16, 2022-1-23, 2021-12-30, 2021-11-12,  2021-10-27, 2021-10-14, 2021-9-29, 2021-9-6, 2021-8-20, 2021-8-7, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29

　

pic. : This websites group  was ranked No.1 on Yandex of Russia  by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  test at  2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-11-11, 2021-10-28, 2021-10-15, 2021-7-18, 2021-7-11, 2021-6-29, 2021-6-16; No.2 at 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17

　

　

ps: :my backup site CourageWorld.ch has been attacked by pro hackers

　

pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on US Yahoo serach engine , 2022-1-24, 2021-12-31, 2021-7-18 ; No.2 at 2022-3-12, 2022-2-17, 2021-8-20

　

.

pic. : This websites group was ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at 2022-6-30,  2022-6-11, 2022-5-27, 2022-4-22, 2022-3-11, 2022-2-16, 2022-1-23, 2021-12-30, 2021-11-12, 2021-10-14,  2021-9-29, 2021-9-5, 2021-8-19, 2021-7-17, 2021-6-28, 2021-4-28, 2021-4-23, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021 

　

　

pic. : No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on US Yahoo serach engine , 2021-7-18; No.2 at 2021-8-20

　

★
 Some government's research projects such as 「2019年西醫師人力發展估計畫期末報告」,「衛生福利部104年度科技研究計畫」by Dr. Chao A. Hsiung, 熊昭 conclude: the supply shortage pf physicians (M.D.) would be possible, given that the number of regional hospitals increasing one per year till end of 2020, as for other scenarios, supply exceeds demand.  The Liberty Times (opinion, 12-22-2020, https://talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1420360王宏育) notes that, on average, one medical Doctor is for 250- patients in Taipei city, 500- patients in Taiwan, besides, about 1500 Doctors graduate from medical school in each year, Taiwan's current problem are (1) the more Doctors, the heavier burden to insurance system, (2) inequality  ―  the underprivileged minority in remote places needs better medical care.  In contrast, according to WEF<Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 9-4-2019), Taiwan's Health & Hygiene (including "physicians density" ) score 6.0 is worse than that of No.16 Japan, No. 17 Korea, and Australia, Mongolia.   According to  WEF<Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 4-6-2017), Taiwan's "Physician density" ranks pretty bad   ―   world No. 65 (No. 57 in 2015's report).  

★

According to Wikipedia (2021-5-5) and Liberty Times (2020-1-6),  Taiwan's doctor-to-population ratio (see pic. below) almost hit lowest in Asia, behind Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam...even Myanmar,  Doctor visits about 2 to 5 minutes per patient.  Taiwan also suffers a shortage of nurses.  For budget factor, Taiwan's system has no regard for faculties of risk (surgery, internal medicine, gynaecology, pediatrics, emergency), which affects the medicine, operation and diagnostic tools (X-ray vs. MRI) prescribed.  The government said (LTN, 2020-1-6) the upper limit, 1,300, of new Doctors in each year will be reevaluated.  Scholar 鄭英耀 criticized the big imbalance of medical resource between Taipei and Kaohsiung, TaiTung, PinTung, remote places, mountains, which should be improved urgently.  As for other indexes, Taiwan loses Hong Kong, Macau (China), Singapore, S. Korea etc in indexes such as Life Expectancy at birth, Death per 1,000 Population, and Health-Care Cost, etc (see pic. below).  Taiwan was not included in top 100 "best healthcare in the world, 2021" by world population review (worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world).  None of Taiwan's hospitals were selected in Newsweek's "World Best Hospitals 2020", but many hospitals in Asia's Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India etc were included in top 100 (see pic. below).  Taiwan's high education was ranked around No. 8 ~ No. 10 among Asian & Pacific countries in Nature Index (2020), Times Higher Education-World University Rank (2021),  Quacquarelli Symonds UK (2021) full text , etc.   Apple Daily (6-30-2018) notes Taiwan's only pride left, health insurance, includes no preventive health care and health promotion, and will worsen within next 10 years for political factors.   Apple Daily (6-30-2018) pointed out Taiwan's only pride left, health insurance, includes no preventive health care and health promotion, and will worsen within next 10 years for political factors. 

　

World's Best Hospitals 2022

newsweek.com/worlds-best-hospitals-2022
world rank country Asia hospital
No.12 Singapore Singapore General Hospital
No.13 Japan The University of Tokyo Hospital
23 Japan St. Luke's International Hospital
30 S. Korea Asan Medical Center
43 S. Korea Samsung Medical Center
46 Japan Kameda Medical Center
55 S. Korea Seoul National University Hospital
70 S. Korea Severance Hospital - Yonsei University
76 Japan  Kyushu University Hospital
78 Japan Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine
87 S. Korea Catholic Univ. of Korea - Seoul St. Mary
89 S. Korea Seoul National University - Bundang Hospital
98 Singapore National Univ, Hospital
number of selected hospitals in top 100 list  -  S. Korea : 6; Japan: 5 ; Singapore: 2

　

World's Best Hospitals 2021

www.newsweek.com/best-hospitals-2021
world rank country hospital
No.8 Singapore Singapore General Hospital
No.16 Japan The University of Tokyo Hospital
18 Japan St. Luke's International Hospital
34 S. Korea Asan Medical Center
42 S. Korea Seoul National University Hospital
43 Japan Kameda Medical Center
62 Japan  Kyushu University Hospital
71 Japan Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine
73 S. Korea Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine
76 S. Korea Severance Hospital - Yonsei University
84 Japan Kyoto University Hospital
87 S. Korea Seoul National University - Bundang Hospital
91 Japan Kurashiki Central Hospital
97 S. Korea Korea University - Anam Hospital
number of selected hospitals in top 100 list  - Japan: 7 ;  S. Korea : 6; Singapore: 1
101-200 S. Korea 6 
101-200 India 2  All India Institute of Medical Sciences - Delhi, Medanta The Medicity
101-200 Thailand 1   Bumrungrad International Hospital
101-200 Singapore 2   Gleneagles Hospital,  National University Hospital
101-200 Japan 10
total number of selected hospitals - Japan: 17 ;  S. Korea : 12 ; Singapore: 3; India: 2; Thai: 1

★

ref to Wikipedia : physicians density in Asia

 Newsweek:  World Best Hospitals 2020
Asia's rankings country  physicians
per 10,000 people		 global
rankings		 country hospitals
1 Qatar 77.4 8 Singapore Singapore General Hospital
2 N Korea 33 16 Japan St Luke's Int'l Hospital
3 Australia 32.7 18 Japan  The U of Tokyo Hospital
4 Lebanon 32 28 Australia Royal Melbourne Hospital
5 Mongolia 28.4 31 Singapore National Univ Hospital 
6 New Zealand 27.4 36 Australia Alfred Hospital
7 Jordan 25.6 42 S. Korea Samsung Medical Center
8 UAE 25.3 45 Japan Kyoto Univ Hospital
9 Saudi Arabia 24.9 50-100 India All India Institute of Medical Sciences
10 Japan 23 Japan Kameda Medical Center
11 Korea 21.4 S. Korea Korea Univ Anam Hospital
12 Singapore 19.5 Japan Kurashiki Center Hospital
13 China 14.9 Japan Kyushu Univ Hospital
14 Malaysia 12 Japan Osaka Univ Hospital
15 Philippines 12 Australia Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital
16 Vietnam 11.9 Australia Royal prince Alfred Hospital
17 Iran 9 S. Korea Seoul National Univ - Bundang Hospital
18 Pakistan 8.3 S. Korea Seoul National Univ Hospital
19 Indonesia 8 S. Korea Severance Hospital
20 India 7 S. Korea The Catholic Univ of Korea - St. Mary's Hospital
21 Myanmar 6.1

 table. above:  newsweek.com/best-hospitals-2020

　

table left: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_physicians
 , data:  2007-2013

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Taiwan   2021-5-5

　

talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343896   Liberty Times, 2020-1-6

talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343897
talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343895
22 Iraq 6.1
23 Thai 3.9
24 Laos 1.8
25 Cambodia 1.7
★

Doctors per 10,000 people in Taiwan

　 Taipei Southern and Eastern Taiwan (Kaohsiung, PinTung, TaiTung, PonHo), remote places
physicians (內科醫師) 5.01 2.12
surgeon (外科醫師) 1.77 0.82
Pediatrics (小兒科) 1.11 0.46
Obstetrics & Gynecology (婦產) 0.86 0.42
Accident & Emergency (急診) 0.82 0.47
Liberty Times, 2020-1-6;talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343896

　

Health Care Costs By Country 2021 　 World population Data Sheet, PRB  2020-7-10  

　
Global
Rankings		 Country Global
Rankings		 Country Country Life Expectancy
 at birth		 L.Expectancy
(Male)		 L.Expectancy
(Female)		 Death per 1000 population
1 China 27 Myanmar China HK 85 82 88 6
2 India 28 South Korea Macau 84 81 87 3
4 Indonesia 36 Iraq Japan 84 81 87 11
5 Pakistan 41 Saudi Arabia Singapore 83 81 85 5
8 Bangladesh 45 Malaysia S Korea 83 80 86 6
11 Japan 49 Nepal Taiwan 80 77 84 7
13 Philippines 54 North Korea 　 　
15 Vietnam 57 Taiwan 　

worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/health-care-costs-by-country

worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world    2021

prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/letter-booklet-2020-world-population.pdf
18 Iran 58 Sri Lanka
20 Thailand 71 Cambodia 

According to professor 林鴻志 on Apple Daily (2021-5-8, tw.appledaily.com/forum/20210508/3DJUH6VA2ZEKDEIOXXCAHEER4E/ ), Taiwan's neonatal mortality rate is ranked at latter part of OECD countries, top 5 death causes are congenital anomaly chromosome abnormalities, respiratory diseases, PNM, Perinatal mortality, illness related to fetal growth & gestation, accidents and perinatal infection.  The government needs to improve national insurance coverage, on such as a well-trained and licensed Doctor should be on the site when a child was born, to decrease the possibility of complication.   The statistics by CIA Factbook and Wikipedia show Taiwan's Infant Mortality ranks world No. 41 and is behind countries of Asia & Pacific like Japan, Singapore, HK, S. Korea, Australia, Macau and NZ in 2020 as well as in 2018. (see table below)
★

Infant mortality (deaths/1,000 live births) – 2018 and 2020 estimates

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_and_under-five_mortality_rates
rankings country death/1,000 live births(2020) death/1,000 live births (2018)

Doctors per 10,000 people in Taiwan
　 Taipei Southern and Eastern Taiwan (Kaohsiung, PinTung, TaiTung, PonHo), remote places
physicians 5.01 2.12
surgeon 1.77 0.82
Pediatrics 1.11 0.46
Obstetrics & Gynecology  0.86 0.42
Accident & Emergency 0.82 0.47
Liberty Times, 2020-1-6;
talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1343896
1 (2) Japan 1.9 2.0
2 (5) Singapore 2.3 2.3
3 (12) Hong Kong 2.7 2.7
4 (13) S. Korea 3 3.0
5 (14) Australia 3.1 4.2
5 (15) Macau 3.1 3.1
6 (30) NZ 3.5 4.1
7 (41) Taiwan 4.2 4.3

★

Taiwan only ranks world 45th position in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017 (based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study, 2015),  some chronic disease items got very low scores, e.g.,   Leukemia score 49,  Kidney disease 50, Gallbladder & biliary 57, Hypertensive Heart Disease 60,   diabetes mellitus 58, etc.  But, according to Lancet's Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index released at May 23, 2018,  from 1990 to 2016, 186 of 195 countries and territories significantly increased their HAQ Index score, South Korea, Taiwan (Province of China), and Cyprus recorded the largest improvements among high-SDI countries.  Taiwan's HAQ is still behind other Asia & Pacific countries, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and USA.

Lancet's national or territory

estimates of the HAQ Index

yr. 2016 2000 　
Australia 95.9 90.4
Japan 94.1 86.9
New Zealand 92.4 87.0
Singapore 90.6 79.7
S Korea 90.3 74.4
USA 88.7 86.8
Taiwan 85.4 71.8

★

　 Taiwan ranks world 45th in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017
   
　 　

http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(17)30818-8.pdf  

　

In Lancet, Jun. 2018, Taiwan's NM skin cancer (20)  , congenital heart (69 ), chronic kidney (55)  , Diabetes (60 ), gallbladder ( 64 ), hypertensive HD  (61), stroke  (63)  , Lower respiratory infections (LRIs), peptic ulcer, got low scores, but Hernia,Diphtheria, Tetanu, URls  , Maternal disorders, leukemia, chronic respiratory got excellent score。In lancet healthcare access and quality index (Jun. 2018), Taiwan is behind some other countries of Asia and Pacific, Australia, Japan, NZ, Singapore, Korea, Lebanon。

　

Besides, Apple Daily (2021-4-23) points out that the neurology (taking care of the most number of Persons with Disabilities) and its patients have been often ignored by government and national insurance system.  ( tw.appledaily.com/forum/20210423/DMJGXHAOSBGO5J5KUNRFL5MVSA/ )

★

AIT (American de facto embassy to Taiwan,  ait.org.tw/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/) made some comments about Taiwan's medical system : (1) huge numbers of physicians in large hospitals have received training abroad – most of them in the U.S. (2) In most Taiwanese emergency rooms, patients lying on gurneys crowded everywhere – sometimes down the hall and out the door  (3)  Hospital based outpatient clinics differ dramatically from Western notions of privacy and the doctor-patient relationship (4) In some instances, the ambulances are short of trained technicians or/and medical equipments......  

★

As for CovID-19 , in Bloomberg's CovID-19 Resilience Ranking (2021-6-28),  Taiwan plunges into the bottom half of the Ranking , accentuated by a lagging vaccination drive and a resurgent outbreak; compared with the same list No. 4 in April, and No. 15 in May 2021.  Taiwan's death rate is double global average.  Taiwan's recovery rate  is much worse than that of other major countries of Asia & Pacific.  According to  CovID-19 Taiwan deaths - Google Search, 2021-5-27, Singapore 99.1%, Hong Kong 97.6%, China 94.5%, Korea 92.75%, Japan 88.9%,  (pic. below).  Media reports (UDN, 2021-6-7) Taiwanese patients in serious situation waiting for about one week but failed to get Remdesivir, a specific remedy for cure coronavirus, in spite of that CovID headquarter declares Remdesivir in stock is enough.  In short, the stock is enough because they don't give you. (udn.com/news/story/7339/5513808?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2) 

  China Times, editorial, 2021-6-9: The medicine for patients is not enough which made high death rate and high number of severe CovID disease.
chinatimes.com/opinion/20210608005991-262101?chdtv  CTV news, 2021-6-9: In 2020, only 1 hospital, NTUH,  can use  Remdesivir, a specific remedy for CovID-19 patients, in earlier this year, all hospitals need CDC's approval (was rejected quite often) and usually 8 ~ 12 hours for patients to use it, sometimes it's too late to save lives.  CTV news, 2021-6-30, 19:11: CovID patient in Ministry of Health's PingTung Hospital got nothing but antipyretic, cough medicine.  Besides, Taiwan did not use Monoclonal antibody  in the first place to save patients.  Will Taiwan's national Insurance system treat patients with other critical diseases like this ?  Taipei Medical University professor 楊哲銘 says "we should no more think Taiwan's medical quality is quite good" (udn.com/news/story/7339/5513808?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2).  Global Times criticizes "Taiwan authorities have no intention or power to fight the epidemic at all.",  "Taiwan's COVID-19 fight has been a mess and the Taiwan authorities can only play tricks to make up for their mistakes".   globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1225525.shtml globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1225540.shtml (ps: they regard politics more).  China Times, 2021-6-26: some medical expert's critiques lead to being "horror attack" by internet army.  No wonder some experts might doubt Taiwan's pride - national insurance system, treats money more than its nationals' health and lives.
  The lawmaker blasted (2021-6-9 news) what color the Health minister's heart is !   To learn further details about CovID-19 in Taiwan

★

Bloomberg, Nov. 25, 2021  

"Winners and Losers" from a year of ranking Covid resilience

 Pandemic MVPs - Only 7 places never fell into the bottom half of the ranking
world rank country of Asia & Pacific Asia's rank
4/53 U.A.E. 1
6 S. Korea 2
8 Mainland China 3
9 Hong Kong 4
10 Saudi Arabia 5
12 Japan 6
13 Australia 7
17 New Zealand 8
20 Singapore 9
30 Pakistan 10
31 Taiwan 11
32 Bangladesh 12
moneyweb.co.za/news/international/winners-and-losers-from-a-year-of-ranking-covid-resilience/
 Taiwan successfully eliminated and kept out Covid in the first year , now it is in the bottom half among 53 countries

　

TAIWAN           VS.          USA,   Singapore,  Israel
The US Singapore Israel Taiwan
warns Americans over 60... not vaccinated, are at extreme risk.
(New York Times 2021-8-24)		 Singapore launched a campaign to persuade elderly vaccine holdouts  In Israel, aged 60 are first priority group, but in Taiwan they are the 10th (say last) priority ● Taiwan CDC  (2021-9-2): Plenty of opportunities were offered for older populations, now the opportunities will be moved to groups younger.  But the truth is millions of older adults kept awaiting their first BNT or Moderna shot from beginning. 
￭ NY Times, 2021-8-23: Critics say Taiwanese worry local vaccine which effectiveness and safety have not been proved ￭ Lots of local critiques against Taiwan's harboring local vaccine


Taiwan lacks vaccines R&D, and can't have excellent vaccines from the west with schedule behind 60~70 countries till Feb.  New York Times, 3-14-2021:  amid vaccine campaigns elsewhere. Taiwan officials have been slow to procure and distribute vaccines ...  China Times 2021-5-16: The number of Taipei's negative-pressure beds available is only 51 since CovID-19 major outbreak about 3 days ago.  United Daily, 2021-5-18, editorial (udn.com/news/story/7338/5465373?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2) : some Corona-virus infected patients can not have any ambulance for 2 days, Taipei gov. said all hospital-wards are full.  Next TV news, 2021-5-19: Taiwan's best hospital NTUH urges infected patients not to come its emergency room in that the capacity is full.   Some hospitals rejecting CovID patient leads to death ( e.g., UDN, 2021-5-19,  udn.com/news/story/120940/5468346,  TTV news youtube.com/watch?v=3i8D-p-aiKQ  ps: the gov. denied)  Many infected patients were asked to stay at home and have antipyetics to decrease symptoms, which might endanger healthy people.   Liberty Times, 2021-5-25: Some physicians of Taiwan's NTUH applied for long vacation to avoid curing CovID patients.  (health.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/3544601)     CTV news 2021-5-18: Taiwan's medical capacity is not enough for CovID-19... although, after the outbreak, Taiwan only added 1,000- infected CovID-19 patients (the number of infections, May 15 - 18 : 180, 206, 333, 240).   CTS morning news, 2021-5-26: Taipei city gov. says it will be regular for resident detected positive to quarantine at home, instead of hospital or health-care site.
　

Former medical chief 楊志良 warns (TVBS, 1-17-2021) epidemic prevention will fail if gov. continues to take strategy of political manipulation and double standard in favor of medical circle for voting.  Soon after a study published in the medical journal Lancet (Oct. 1, 2020) estimates the number of Taiwanese infected with CoronaVirus by July 2020 is 25 times more cases than Taiwan's official number.  Washington Post, 12-22-2020: Taiwan snaps world’s longest Covid-free streak after pilot infects local resident. (The loophole of Taiwan is pilots undergo a less strict three days of self-quarantine after each overseas trip) United Daily, editorial (12-24-2020) points out the myth of Taiwan's longest Covid-free streak has always been questioned because  (1) lots of tourists or foreign laborers were found infected while going through their country's immigration (2) lots of foreign art-performers and laborers were found infected after 14 days home quarantine in Taiwan.  These let us know there indeed are "mild CovID-19 spread in some corners of our communities " (輕症傳播), people with coronavirus infections have no or mild symptoms.  Fortunately everyone in Taiwan wearing masks stops serious situation. (https://udn.com/news/story/7338/5117298?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2 )  ABC News (12-15-2020) reported Taiwan has set a goal to vaccinate only 60% of its population with a COVID-19 vaccine (abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/latest-korea-opening-dozens-free-virus-test-sites-74710084 ).  But VOA, LTN, 12-25-2020 (news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3391701) advise 70% of a country's population should have antibody or must to take vaccinate.   Till Feb., 2021, Taiwan's health system has not collapsed under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, most hospitals are functional, severe and intractable patients remained same number, but some departments - Emergency, Pediatrics, Dentistry, ENT, Rehabilitation treatment were affected between Feb. and May 2020, some hospitals' income falls short of expenditure. (tw.appledaily.com/forum/20210221/LK57ZDY4FJHZVK3THEXEZWNY5U/ 李偉強 )

　

Economist, Safe Cities Index 2021
Health Security
1 Tokyo   87.7
2 Singapore 84.1
3 Hong Kong 84.0
4 Melbourne 81.9
5 Osaka  81.8
6 Seoul 81.1
10 Sydney 78.6
12 Abu Dhabi (UAE) 76.5
13 Dubai 75.5
19 Beijing 73.6
19 Shanghai 73.6
21 Taipei 73.5
safecities.economist.com/safe-cities-2021-whitepaper/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2e6Ih_Sj_gIVAtdMAh1JlQuIEAAYAiAAEgIi_vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Professor 楊哲銘 on Apple Daily (12-14-2020) says stigmatization and discrimination of diseases is bad for Taiwan's National Insurance systems.  The laws (e.g., Communicable Disease Control Act, HIV Infection Control & Patient Rights Protection Act ) to protect and respect the dignity and the legal rights of the infected obviously are useless.  US (state dept.) Country Reports on Human Rights practices,  3-11-2020: There was reported discrimination, including employment discrimination, against persons with HIV/AIDS.

★

On the other hand, Washington Post at 3-1-2019 "An American got sick in Taiwan.  He came back with a tale of the ‘horrors of socialized medicine" named Taiwan's health-care system "socialized medicine", Taiwan is less wealthy than the US, yet it spends less and gets more,  the amount costs for a course of Harvoni treatment and C-section is  $32,114 and $15,106 respectively in the Us, but $2,132 and $1,404 in Taiwan.   An American in Taiwan getting stomach flu was checked by MD within 20 minutes of his arrival  (ref. to https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/01/an-american-got-sick-taiwan-he-came-back-with-tale-horrors-socialized-medicine/)  , although the avg. percentage of patients taking 48 hours in emergency room of NTUH awaiting being hospitalized in 2018 is 7.9%, CVA patient may take 24 hours.  Formosa TV news reported at 2-27-2019 that patients usually take 5~7 days or even nearly half month in emergency room of NTUH awaiting being hospitalized.  The University of Texas ― M.D. Anderson cancer center professor Euishin Edmund Kim, M.D. urged Korean people don't waste their energy flying to the US for medical treatment, because Korea's medical tech. is as good as any other country's.   An article (Apple Daily, Taiwan, 6-22-2015) by Taiwan's Veterans General Hospital physician Dr. Ton (唐宗詠) points out that so many Taiwanese expatriates living abroad (with permanent resident card) and/or  foreign citizens of Taiwanese origin flied a long way back to Taiwan for medical treatment. ――  Taiwan's medical-insurance system costs them much less than that in other countries, e.g.,  the price for a plaster cast in USA  almost equals one month salary of a Taiwanese orthopaedics resident-physician, so, some Taiwanese or Taiwanese American, etc, would rather bear the pain caused by their illness and long-distance trip to save lots of their money. http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20150622/633042/  (包山包海包全球的台灣健保)    The Liberty Times (5-5-2019) : The number of foreign patients coming Taiwan for treatment etc hits new high, 110 thousands more than that of the previous year.

Taiwan's medical & health performance was so successful (e.g. life expectancy, infant mortality and maternal mortality, are better than U.S., although we spent only one-quarter of USD (PPP) in health expenditure.) that former leader of health government, Dr. Ye Ching-chuan, was invited to testify at an US senate committee hearing on this issue  (http://blog.udn.com/yestaipei/18685477) .  An article by China Medical University (Taiwan) Professor Ma (馬文隆)  stated Taiwanese studies on liver cancer lead the world in the past   (http://gicm.cmu.edu.tw/adv.html )  also proves Taiwan's medical tech. is as good as most countries in the world.  

◆

However, United Daily (經濟日報) editorial, 6-25-2020: The financial situation of Taiwan's healthcare system has recently deteriorated, the govt. may need to increased greatly Taiwanese insurance fee.  United Daily 6-24-2020: National Taiwan University professor 薛承泰: Taiwan's national health insurance buries 'land mines' or 'time bombs' such as lower birth rate and aging society,  some room inside the system for playing tricks, the difference between insurance rate and benefit payment, etc may resulting in consequences.  Taiwan's Medical and Health Minister (李伯璋) regards increasing national insurance fee as a political issue which is beyond his authority, instead, he focuses on reducing expenditure. United Daily, 10-9-2020 (udn.com/news/story/7266/4923388): former medical deputy chief criticized reducing expenditure by tracking duplicate examinations etc fails to solve big problem, the government has not dealt with the issue of low diagnostic & operation fee, low drug price, low ward fee and low nursing care fee for 25 years, to make Taiwan's hospitals a "sweat factory", the hospitalizing patients even need to be taken care by their family members or illegal foreign workers.  The China Times, 10-30-2020 (chinatimes.com/opinion/20201030000025-262115?chdtv): Taiwan's National Insurance is in "a  state of many diseases".  The government supposes to increase everyone's insurance fee, but the serious problem of nation's low pay might easily stir a strong backlash.  Taiwan loves to use National Insurance as a great international propaganda material, but, the ruling party actually has already treated the issue as a "hot potato", and hence the snow-ball has become bigger and bigger. 

Bloomberg, 12-18-2020
country Health Care Cost

　

GDP%

 Health Care Cost


per capita
US 17.1 10246
Swiss 12.3 9956
Cuba 11.7 988
France 11.3 4380
Germany 11.2 5033
Sweden 11 5905
Japan 10.9 4169
Canada 10.6 4755
Norway 10.4 7936
Austria 10.4 4940
Belgium 10.3 4507
Nederland 10.1 4911
Denmark 10.1 5800
UK 9.6 3859
Brasil 9.5 929
Australia 9.2 5332
Finland 9.2 4206
NZ 9.2 3937
Argentina 9.1 1325
Portugal 9.0 1908
Chile 9.0 1382
Spain 8.9 2506
Italy 8.8 2840
Iran 8.7 475
Serbia 8.4 529
Ecuador 8.3 518
Lebanon 8.2 719
Greece 8.0 1517
Korea 7.6 2283
Israel 7.4 3145
Costa Rica 7.3 869
Ireland 7.2 4977
Czech 7.2 1476
Columbia 7.2 459
Hungary 6.9 981
Paraguay 6.7 381
Slovakia 6.7 1186
Taiwan 6.6 1550
Poland 6.5 907

Apple Daily 7-17-2019: Taiwan's healthcare system is on the edge of bankruptcy in 2026, the government's allocation of funds for urgent need is no more than curing the symptom instead of curing the disease.  Next TV news (5-25-2019, 20:44, 壹新聞  壹電視 ) reported that Taiwan government kept adjusting the price of more and more drugs to cover the deficit of medical insurance system, which resulted in more and more brand drugs withdrawing from Taiwan (e.g., TIENAM) , because cheap-price generic drugs made in Taiwan are not as curative effective as brand drugs, Physicians worry there's no good medicines for patients ....  Besides, Apple Daily (6-4-2017): Taiwan medical service's critical problem ―― Preventive Health-Care service is behind.   The China Times, (7-4-2017) : "patients centered" is nothing but a slogan.   Apple Daily, 11-10-2020: It's a reality in today's Taiwan that the omniscient government absolutely manipulate each national's personal data which were collected all the time since he(she) was born, e.g., each person's health & medical data/information was forced without agreement of the party to be opened on purpose of business and academic use(澄社).

★
Furthermore,
 ●  Guardian (UK), 10-31-2020: Now, Taipei's people browse, busk and greet each other with handshakes and hugs. It feels normal.  However, Taiwan has already "exported" dozens COVID-19 infected cases to a number of foreign countries, not sure yet who should be responsible for this, according to United Daily, editorial, 10-31-2020. https://udn.com/news/story/7338/4977422?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

● New York Post  4-25-2020 : Taiwan deals with CovID-19 with "a lot more authoritarian.", "almost everyone is tracked.".  Taiwanese govt. responded at 4-28-2020 that Taiwanese would like to cooperate with our policy.  But the truth is Taiwan's "Big Brother" already sneaked into numerous families in the name of  Epidemic Prevention, by an injunction violating Tort Law and domineering over Constitution (凌駕憲法的侵權禁令) , without having noticed all nationals, in accordance with United Daily, editorial at 5-7-2020.   The ironic thing is after lifting Coronavirus Lockdown, Japan doesn't trust Taiwan's Epidemic Prevention, and has not put "democratic" Taiwan on their welcome list, many other countries did same thing to Taiwan.  The China Times, editorial (6-6-2020, 6-25-2020) analyzed one main reason is Taiwan rejects mass testing, even small-scale testing, the number of test per million people is 3000+, ranked world No. 138, about same level as that of African countries, even African Luanda tested double number of Taiwan's.  A famous National Taiwan University M.D. expert endorsed for Taiwan's policy :   there's no any CovID-19 in Taiwan, 3 weeks later, a Japanese girl staying Taiwan for 4 months was detected positive in Japan's airport.   Therefore, those free flow of information can be suspicious and may endanger the entire world.  United Daily 7-16-2020: To keep good record,  Taiwan takes 'ostrich' strategy (avoid mass testing). According to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the new coronavirus may never show symptoms or fall ill — but can still transmit the illness to others (4-15-2020, Business Insider). Bill Gates in the New England Journal of Medicine: The prevalence of asymptomatic transmission doesn't bode well for global containment efforts.  All studies (CNBC 5-7-2020, Singapore's Blackbox Research and Toluna, Forbes 6-5-2020, 4-16-2020: The Deep Knowledge Group) concluded China is better than Taiwan on CovID-19 safety countries rankings.  Apple Daily 7-8-2020:  expert (中央研究院研究員何美鄉) warned that many CovID-19 infected people without symptom in Taiwan.

●  The China Times, editorial (6-6-2020) : world don't trust Taiwan's Epidemic Prevention achievement  ――  Although Japan, Greece, Australia, New Zealand lifted Its Coronavirus Lockdown, their tourist-welcome-list includes Korea, China, but not Taiwan.  Since the very beginning Taiwan rejects mass testing, even small-scale testing,  the percentage (the number of test per million people is 3000+, ) was ranked world No. 138.   But according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the new coronavirus may never show symptoms or fall ill — but can still transmit the illness to others (4-15-2020, Business Insider).  Bill Gates in the New England Journal of Medicine: The prevalence of asymptomatic transmission doesn't bode well for global containment efforts.  Taiwan Yahoo News (8-6-2020, news.yahoo.com/自家人開第一槍何志偉逆時中入境一律篩檢-002543455.html) reported even ruling party's lawmaker now urges giving testing to all visitors going thru immigration.
 ● Taiwan News 6-26-2020, United Daily 6-27-2020: Following news that a Japanese student tested positive for coronavirus after returning from southern Taiwan on Wednesday (June 24), many Taiwanese expressed concerns over a potential undetected community cluster. Voices have also begun to surge from communities calling for general virus testing for all individuals entering the island country.  Taiwan CECC insists general virus testing unnecessary ... UDN 7-16-2020:  the only means govt. got are containment and wearing mask.  United Daily 6-30-2020 editorial: Taiwanese experts suggesting general testing were attacked by internet army for that reason.

● The China Times 6-25-2020 editorial: Taiwan has no same capacity and experience as Beijing does to face something serious, it will be horrible in case CovID-19 epidemic break out.  https://www.chinatimes.com/opinion/20200624003961-262101?chdtv

● Apple Daily (蘋果日報, 4-15-2019), United Daily (聯合報, 4-14-2019) ... : Going easy route, lacking of ethics, MDs advised using Da Vinci for even a minor operation,  38 hospitals were suspected of making false report about Da Vinci surgery to illegally obtain benefits from national insurance up to NTD 3.5 billion.

● The Liberty Times, (9-29-2018) : Taipei mayor Ko: Taiwan's medical services all aim for profit, the problem of politics there is everyone tells right from wrong, but no one wants to do the right thing.   In Taiwan, the better medical knowledge, the less profit ― M.D.s curing patient of disease by simpler methods can not make good money, instead, they tried to convince you to do Hemodialysis, Positive airway pressure, ... or even to stay in intensive care unit (ICU) ...  LTN 11-27-'15: medical problem is political problem, the whole medical systems were manipulated by mega-corporation, and no one wants to make any change ...  The Liberty Times (LTN) 11-26-'15: Taipei mayor Ko said physicians or medical Doctors of Taiwan just don't speak the truth, otherwise they will be killed, or be accused...  Ko doesn't like to join even the most important meetings of National Taiwan University Hospital ―― in there, either "paper over the cracks" or taking chance to struggle each other.

● The China Times, (7-4-2017) : former leader of Taiwan University Hospital criticized that many hospitals' management is only for profit-making, hospital managers should win by virtue, physicians should advance their knowledge and tech. all the time, otherwise "patients centered" is nothing but a slogan.  

● Apple Daily, (8-18-2018): "The rich see Doctors, the poor enter grave (有錢看病、沒錢等死)"? / former medical gov. leader 楊志良。  Popular TV star 白冰冰 said (June 2017) : "The rich cut in a queue to see Doctors, the poor are on the way to die (有錢免排、無錢等埋)" !   

● United Daily News (9-28-2018): <我們都是病友>: ... The administration and part of Taiwan's medical circle have not treated patients' rights as central issue (病人為中心)   / 楊志良。

●  Apple Daily, 12-30-2017: Amending the law of Taiwan's medical services is criticized as "Decriminalization".   Taiwan's medical-service environment is getting worse (台灣醫院免責? 醫療環境再惡化).  Patients in Taiwan will be difficult to put to the proof in their legal cases.

● United Daily News (5-30-2017): The biggest problem of Taiwan's medical care is too short diagnostic time, without a completed examination in most cases, usually, patients are already in serious condition when symptom became clear. / Dr. Huang D.F., president of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center.
 ● Apple Daily (6-4-2017): Taiwan's critical problem ―― Preventive Health-Care service is behind. / former medical gov leader Young (楊志良).

● A famous M.D., Hsu or Xu Da-Fu (許達夫)'s book "Exposing the truth of modern medical circle in Taiwan - misdiagnosis & medical errors" ("誤診誤醫", published by the China Times, 2012) criticizes :
   (1) Taiwan's hospitals focus on profit/benefit and ignore patients' rights (in Ch.1 "Taiwan's medical system is ill")   ―   The whole medical circle already went the wrong route, it gonna be too late if most influential and enthusiastic persons do not spend efforts on completely changing our medical education to boot physicians' medical spirits.
   (2) Medical students only learn Pathology and the way how their professors doing malicious competition and internal struggle for the power and money, and lack of Ethics knowledge as well as Humanism quality.○

●  Taipei City mayor Ko : Taiwan has not established a culture of honesty, each time being in National Taiwan University Hospital's meeting, the 1st thing cross mind always is "who performed the operation (surgery) ?", M.D.s always take it personally ... ( '無法真正做到對事不對人')  /  buzzorange.com/2015/05/29 " The phony culture in Taipei City Hall - 整個社會都在說謊？！柯文哲揭露市府假面文化" http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20170611002397-260407

　

　

  <

top rankings on US Yahoo, Bing, Google, Euro. MetaGER.de, Taiwan's Yahoo, etc, tests in  2019 ~present

　

pic. : This websites group was ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at  2-12-2021 

　

　

　

　

Bloomberg, 12-18-2020
country Health Care Cost

　

GDP%

 Health Care Cost


per capita
US 17.1 10246
Swiss 12.3 9956
Cuba 11.7 988
France 11.3 4380
Germany 11.2 5033
Sweden 11 5905
Japan 10.9 4169
Canada 10.6 4755
Norway 10.4 7936
Austria 10.4 4940
Belgium 10.3 4507
Nederland 10.1 4911
Denmark 10.1 5800
UK 9.6 3859
Brasil 9.5 929
Australia 9.2 5332
Finland 9.2 4206
NZ 9.2 3937
Argentina 9.1 1325
Portugal 9.0 1908
Chile 9.0 1382
Spain 8.9 2506
Italy 8.8 2840
Iran 8.7 475
Serbia 8.4 529
Ecuador 8.3 518
Lebanon 8.2 719
Greece 8.0 1517
Korea 7.6 2283
Israel 7.4 3145
Costa Rica 7.3 869
Ireland 7.2 4977
Czech 7.2 1476
Columbia 7.2 459
Hungary 6.9 981
Paraguay 6.7 381
Slovakia 6.7 1186
Taiwan 6.6 1550
Poland 6.5 907
　
Bloomberg, 12-18-2020
life expectancy 年齡
HK 84.93
Japan 84.21
Swiss 83.75
Spain 83.43
Italy 83.35
Singapore 83.15
Israel 82.80
Norway 82.76
Australia 82.75
France  82.72
S Korea 82.63
Sweden 82.56
Ireland 82.26
Canada 81.95
NZ 81.86
Nederland 81.81
Greece 81.79
Finland 81.73
Austria  81.69
Belgium 81.60
Portugal 81.32
UK 81.26
Denmark 80.95
Germany 80.89
Taiwan 80.69
Costa Rica 80.10
Chile 80.04

　

　

 　

　

　

　

　 　

     Finance Yahoo, 12-30-2020 (finance.yahoo.com/news/retire-taiwan-costs-visas-more-215449948.html ):       Taiwan ranks 11th globally in the healthcare efficiency index of Knoema.com, and Numbeo ranks the nation’s healthcare system as the best in the world.

A legal resident of is eligible for the NHI program. It includes coverage for inpatient and outpatient care, prescription drugs, dental care (excluding orthodontics and prosthodontics) and more. Taiwan doesn’t offer free healthcare for expats, but payments will come in the form of copayments. Usually, you can expect to pay 10% to 20% of treatment. You may also have to pay out-of-pocket costs if you choose any other healthcare treatment outside of the NHI coverage...

 　
　 to fill the coverage gap, you may have to purchase private Taiwan expat healthcare insurance. Additionally, it can take a few months to complete the NHI registration ...

　

 　

　

　

　

        

pic. left : No.1 "medical Doctors in Taiwan" on Baidu of China ,  2021-5-31, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 2-12-2021;

pic. right: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on  Baidu of China , 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 2-12-2021

　

　

No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Webcrawler , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27,  2021-4-10,  3-10-2021, 8-17-2020

　

 No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Lycos , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27,  2021-4-10,  3-10-2021, 8-17-2020; pic.: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Excite , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020

No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on ekoru (New Zealand) , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020; pic.: No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Dogpile , 2021-6-24, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27, 2021-4-10, 3-10-2021, 8-17-2020

　

　

　

　

 pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on Yahoo Taiwan, 2021-4-10, No. 1 on Yahoo Japan , 3-10-2021 

　

　

　

　

　

pic. : This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "physicians in Taiwan"  test at   1-16-2021, 12-30-2020, 7-31-2020;

　

　

　

pic. above: The sites-group was ranked No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on US Google , 1-1-2021, 12-30-2020

　

　

　

            

pic. left: No.1  "評論台灣醫院"(comment hospitals in Taiwan) on google,  2021-5-5, 2021-4-26,  2021-4-18, 3-11-2021, pic. right: No.1  "評論台灣醫院"(comment Taiwan hospitals) on google, 2021-5-5, 2021-4-27

　

 No.1 "comment Taiwan hospitals " on US Google , 11-28-2020,  Nov. 6, 2020, 9-16-2020, 8-26-2020, 7-31-2020, 6-1-2020

This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  test at   6-30-2020, 6-1-2020, 1-20-2020

　

　

pic. : This websites group's ranked No.1 on US Google  by keyword "medical Doctors in Taiwan"  test at   11-11-2019

　

　

        

pic. : This websites group is ranked No.1 on Baidu of China by keyword "comment Taiwan hospitals"  at  2021-8-20, 2021-8-8, 10-24-2019.

 pic. : No.1 "physicians in Taiwan" on ASK , 3-10-2021 

　

　

           

　

　
　

★ ◎★

   HOT !       Taiwan travel        food       Taiwan hard power       soft power       democracy      Intro to Taiwan       Taiwan personality      bully      persecution
　

      No.1 rankings on the net   !

★
★1.   serious Corruption - ready to pay a bribe?

　

● Next TV news (壹新聞), 2021-10-28 19:12 : Now money-cash is not allowed,  patients give Doctors imported wine for better "treatment", in the amount of NT$3000~5000 at least. The Doctors regularly exchange those wine with money thru some channels.

　

● The percentage of Taiwanese paying a bribe to public clinics or hospitals is higher than that in Japan, S. Korea, Malaysia

Transparency International, Germany /  Global Corruption Barometer - released 2021/2022
comparisons among main Asian countries

country

 people who think
 government
 corruption
 is a big problem		 public service
users
 paid a bribe
in the previous
 12 months		 public
clinic,
health
centres		 gov.
officials		 local
gov.
officials		 corruption
level
increased
in previous
12months
Taiwan 90% 17% 9% 19% 20% 38%
Japan 84 2 2 7 26 36
Malaysia 71 13 5 28 16 20
China 62 28 26 18 18 39
S Korea 55 10 6 26 42 17
transparency.org/en/countries/taiwan

　

　

● According to <Transparency International> studies ( July 9, 2013), "Have you or anyone in your household paid a bribe to one of these 8 services in the last 12 months?"
 Taiwanese people think the institution needed to be paid bribery most is judiciary system, second is Taiwan's medical and health services, the number of Taiwanese paying a bribe is higher than global average. ( Apple Daily 7-10-2013,http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20130710/35139300/ )
 ◎
<Transparency International> of Germany also found the percentage(%) of Taiwanese respondents who felt medical and health services were one of corrupt/extremely corrupt institutions in this country/territory is 47%. 

　

● CNA (Taiwan), 4-8-2021: The president of Taiwan Adventist General Hospital was involved in national insurance fraud case. cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202104080203.aspx  The Liberty Times (1-10-2017): The hospital M.D. got brokerage or kickback in various forms -  e.g., money, presents/gifts, joining international seminar or conference sponsored by medicine business, or money that contributed to some foundations ... It's a complicated Symbiotic relationship (benefit each other).

　

PS

 　
　 ◆ Apple Daily (蘋果日報, 4-15-2019), United Daily (聯合報, 4-14-2019) ... : Going easy route, lacking of ethics,  38 hospitals were suspected of making false report about Da Vinci surgery to illegally obtain benefits from national insurance up to NTD 3.5 billion.

◆ Apple Daily (蘋果日報, 12-12-2019, headline news), United Daily (聯合報, 12-12-2019) ... : 6 hospitals used fake accounts to apply insurance overpayments ( among them, 北市聯醫 applied for NT55,000 thousands,  by in total 32000 cases, most in Taiwan history...) from the government.   

　

◆   United Daily News  (聯合報), 7-12-2019: Control Yuan (gov.) corrects National Taiwan University Hospital for taking a passive, negative attitude toward a national insurance scam (by NTUH physician) and not checking carefully a wider range of this issue, not taking any measure to prevent this sort things from happening again, since the suite case was under investigations, the hospital long term was careless of administration and controls so that the suspect can signed fake documents for making illegal money.   NTUH expressed it's done by the MD himself and the hospital will review all related procedures. (brief, for precise meaning pls. see the pic. above)

　

pic.: Control Yuan (gov.) corrected National Taiwan University Hospital / UDN 2019

　

　

　

　

◆ pic.: 東森電視; Global News TV - 寰宇綜合, 3-21-2018, 6:40 pm "醫師好辣" - "unspoken secrets in Taiwan's operation rooms":  Patients usually prefer the first operation in each day, this happened that 3 patients all paid bribery to the famous surgeons for having the 1st operation, and all of them had it ......

　

◆ The finding of the 2013 Global Corruption Barometer (GCB),  ( the Gallup Poll to interview 114,000 people in 107 countries all over the world): 36% of  people (surveyed in TW) who had used any of eight government services in the past year had paid a bribe (the number is higher than global average).    <NOWnews> , (7.10.2013)–  Taiwan is the 18th worst corruption country in 95 countries surveyed. (重度貪污國家第18名)  <Apple Daily> (7.11.2013): Apple daily's survey found 75.07% Taiwanese people think corruption in Taiwan is actually worse than GCB's report.

　

◆ <Transparency International> , Taiwan,   Dec 9, '05
     Taiwan's Corruption Index : medical 32%
     ps: this proved Taiwanese medical service is a long lasting rotten circle.

　

◆

     National Health Insurance committee members think Taiwan's Admin. Department treat  National Health Insurance as their own gold-mine or pocket money - withdraw it as much as possible (成了自己的金庫 予取予求)

　

◎★

 ★2.  worse Medicine

　

      n CommonHealth (2023) commonhealth.com.tw/article/87825 : National Taiwan University Hospital president Wu (吳明賢) etc said that our national insurance system blocks new drugs and new equipments.  On average, new drugs are behind 5 years even 10 years to enter Taiwan's market, some Broad-spectrum (not for "first-line treatment") antibiotics were planning to leave Taiwan.

      n United Daily (聯合報), 2023-2-13: pharmacies are short of antibiotics, antacids, and antipyretics. udn.com/news/story/7338/6967234?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

      n United Daily (聯合報), 2022-11-6:  "The darkest day of  history of medicine" (我國藥政史最黑暗的一天) /  Taiwanese government fools the public by EUA，it's a ethical scandal rarely seen in human research that using national's data to prove CovID-19 vaccine's efficacy which acknowledges that using them as guinea pigs , not to mention the "experiment" does not provide with basic data such as gender and age.  It is a research without scientific credit at all.  udn.com/news/story/7339/6742736?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7339_pulldownmenu_v2

       nNext TV news (5-25-2019, 20:44 / 壹新聞  壹電視) reported that Taiwan government kept adjusting the price of more and more drugs to cover the deficit of medical insurance system, which resulted in more and more international brand drugs withdrawing from Taiwanese market (e.g., TIENAM) .   Behind the slogan "the price of medicines of Taiwan is cheapest in the world" is the cheap-price generic drugs made in Taiwan are not as curative effective as brand drugs, because Taiwan's drug companies don't insist on strict quality control on every process, and will not "tighten nerves" after having official permissions from the government.   Physicians worry there's no good medicines for patients ...  In April 2019, Taiwan government continued to adjust the price of 7470 items of medicines, furthermore, the hospitals kept haggling with the drug companies (e.g., the gov. declares certain drug NTD10, the hospitals cut it down to NTD 7 ), the price difference became main profit for the hospitals... ( brief )

       nThe Apple Daily (6-30-2018): Medicine (drug store) is a criminal business for their entire life.
       The Apple Daily (2-20-2016, Prime News): according to clinical experiences, many generic drugs are not as effective as brand drugs...
       nTVBS news reported at 7-15-2015 that (http://news.tvbs.com.tw/life/news-608090/) in order to maximize the profit,  Taiwanese hospitals always cut down the price while purchasing medicines from pharmaceutical factories, this results in international brand drug companies are/were not willing to sell their brand-name medicines to Taiwan, therefore, the quality of prescription medicines in Taiwan is from bad to worse (用藥品質越來越差) .   Former Minister of Health (楊志良) criticized that Taiwanese hospitals do not like to improve medical employee's (M.D.s and nurses) welfare by using their surplus profit.   Many hospitals run their business by "medicine to cover medical" strategy, which is, earning profit by medicine price differences to cover hospital's expenses.   If things go on this way, Taiwanese patients will not have good brand-name medicines even being willing to pay on own dimes in the future, more and more international drug companies may pull back from Taiwan's market for unreasonable high medicine price disparities.  Apple Daily of Taiwan reported at 6-22-2015 that Taiwan's hospitals already used medicines made in Taiwan to replace int'l brand stuffs, and then, recently even don't like to buy some local's medicines (最近甚至連台廠藥都做不下去), till now, money can't buy some important antibiotic medicines.

        nThe United Daily (9-1-2015)'s article "medicine is cheaper than candy" (by 楊志良):  Almost all International pharmaceutical factories/companies had already withdrawn their business from Taiwan many years ago, Those companies having brand drugs within term of a patent show no interests in Taiwan's market,  This "Black Hole" resulted in "bad medicines/drugs drive out good"...

        nThe United Daily, the Apple Daily (9-3-2015, Prime News):  Taiwanese government's new policy - patients paying the part not covered by NHI use brand drugs, is criticized as creating a "class distinctions" (class antagonism), but some cases found generic drugs are not as effective as brand drugs, UDN also mentions medical government lacks of ability to admin. the bigger and bigger drugs/medical device market paid at patient's own expense...
 ★

　

news

 ◆ Hinet  & 台灣新生報 news : Taiwanese prosecutor do not file prosecution against Huang (秀傳醫療體系總裁黃明和) for suspicious having earned huge amount of medicine price differences by establishing an empty-shell company.

◎

　

　


　

　

 　
pic. above: Medical human rights in Taiwan

pic. above: one surgeon performs
 many operations simultaneously - happened quite often in Taiwan
   Dr.Xu's  book   / 
by The China Times 

　

　

　

◎★

　

　

★3.  Surgery

United Daily (聯合報, headline news, 5-11-2019):  unspoken secrets inside operation rooms: Many hospitals reused expensive expendables, some smaller hospitals reused cheap expendables, like medical gauze, suture, etc, the patients under general anesthesia knew nothing and hence were exposed the risk of infection.
United Daily (聯合報,  10-7-2019): 70,000 pieces of illegal medical appliances (TAD, plate of bone) were sold to 200 hospitals/clinics ...

Apple Daily (9-18-2017) reported that "fake surgery" (substitute-surgeon operates illegally) did happen in Chang Gung Mem. Hospital, Taiwan.

Apple Daily (5-13-2015) reported that Taiwanese people have an "Obsession" ―  famous is best, hence, an evil trend "one surgeon performs many operations simultaneously" (「跳台開刀」) prevails, which is a long-lasting cooperate module  ――  a best-known surgeon-physician walks and looks around several operating tables in different operation rooms (all are in his name), and selects a major one to perform a most important part of that surgical procedure, the rest are taken over by 'unknown or less famous' physicians.   (http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150513/36547459/)

A famous M.D., Hsu or Xu Da-Fu (許達夫)'s book "Exposing the truth of modern medical circle in Taiwan - misdiagnosis & medical errors" ("誤診誤醫", published by the China Times, 2012) also criticized this by a real example, a patient complained : the substituted surgeon was not the one on the agreement document with patient's and his in-charge physician's signatures, that substituted doctor even did not know which part needed to be performed operation when he was there in the surgical suite, after the surgery, the patient's wound has become inflamed... Dr. Xu explained this sort of stories indeed happened frequently (經常發生) in today's hospitals, particularly, in major hospitals, because each best-known medical doctor has many patients, it's hard for the doctor to take care of everyone, hence, substituted surgeons doing operations for best-known M.D.s is quite often (常見), particularly, for those famous physicians in charge also working as teachers, lots of things keep them very busy.   Dr. Xu suggested every patient must keeps in mind who is your M.D. in charge, and if you see a substituted doctor showing up in surgical suite, just refuse him to do the operation, unless you are in an emergent situation. 

★

　

● 東森電視; Global News TV - 寰宇綜合, 3-21-2018, 6:40 pm  <unspoken secrets in Taiwan's operation room> "醫師好辣 - 開刀房不告訴你的事", discussed the phenomenon ―  "one Doctor performs several operations at the same time", and  small Doctors perform operations for top Doctors without notifying patients

　

Full text : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT2p7b4ZTQg
pic. left: In medical centers or large hospitals, you may gave surgery by "students",  in small hospital, you may have operation by "master teachers" .
pic. left: It's very possible that resident-Doctors (sometimes, or even CR  MD) replaced top MD to perform operations without notifying patients.
pic. left: The larger hospitals, the more possible small MDs do operations for top MDs .
pic. left: even in training-purpose cases,  quite many "teacher" MDs still leave operation suites.
pic. left: It was this way years ago, security guards did operation, MDs became their "assistant".

　

 ● Apple Daily ( 蘋果日報 5-13-2015) reported that a famous physician (ranking top 100 in Business Weekly) in Taiwan's Taichung Veterans General Hospital performed 5 operations at same time, that caused a woman's death and his new  name - suspicious crime of fraud. (http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150513/36547449/)

(中榮名醫同時五台刀 涉詐欺  害婦送命 疑沒進開刀房也領獎金 / 

廉政署鴨子划水蒐證數月後，發現《商業周刊》百大良醫沈男 兩年內疑有十件跳台開刀情況)

　

　

★

◎★◎★

★4. Bad privacy status in Taiwan's hospitals
      ◆ The Liberty Times, 3-15-2021 (news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/3467139):  5 Nurses took pictures of the female patients’ private parts on hospital operation room, and added some funny remarks, then uploaded them to the online social media IG, ignoring Article 72 of the "Medical Law" (護理人員行為可能涉違反「醫療法」第72條不得無故洩漏病人病情及健康資訊，可處5萬至25萬罰鍰；也恐涉違反「護理人員法」28條護理人員不得洩漏他人秘密，可罰6000元至3萬元)
       ◆ The China Times, 7-3-2017: Taiwan's regulations for patients' privacy is almost no legal effect, hospitals don't take it serious.  e.g., a 30 years old female patient was hospitalized in a very famous hospital 榮總, after she striped her clothes for MD's diagnosis, more than 10 male and female physicians came in, one student (probably intern) took picture by cell phone, the patient can't stand all these and burst out crying .....
     ◆ The United Daily News (聯合新聞) 1-3-2017 <Where's Taiwan's medical ethics ?>  : Leaking patients' medical records is a normal social behaviour in Taiwan - In Taiwan, journalists are not used to respect patients' privacy... our hospitals' members do not know very clearly the principle of protecting patients' privacy...(黃達夫)
       ◆ Apple Daily (3-5-2017): A large hospital's nurse took a picture of the patient without any permission during brain operation in surgical suite and then spread that photo through Instagram.  That nurse also remarked "It's so exciting to see human's brain!".

     ◆ Apple Daily (9-28-2019): about 3 years ago, communist Chinese pro. hackers already broke in Taiwan's top hospitals' computer systems (NTUH, 榮總, etc) and stole all patients' medical records ...

　

　 　

　

　
　 pic.: United Daily News (1-3-2017)

　

◎★
★5.  Ethics, Ethics,  Ethics

      
      Some top MD gave some patients to cut in line.  Feb. 2022
      Apple Daily , 11-9-2020:  a physical therapist​ of Cheng-Hsin General Hospital (Taipei 振興醫院), a famous hospital, committed a crime of sexual harassment (made a pass at her private part, etc) while doing massage upon a female patient. tw.appledaily.com/local/20201109/6J43CZ653VBS3PZZKDBA4FK3XA/
      United Daily, 1-12-2020, editorial opinion: A Taiwanese M.D. gave drugs causing drowsiness to whoever (patient) supports different political party's presidential election candidate.
      According to the book, < Disease and society ― Taiwan searches its conscience from experiences during SARS crisis>  (book title : <疫病與社會：台灣歷經SARS風暴之醫學與人文反省 >, author/ 蔡甫昌、江宜樺(former Prime Minster)etc,  Publisher/ National Taiwan University, Medical School,  Sept. 2012 )

     ◆   Many medical school students' parents scared SARS and ignored the situation that insufficient numbers of doctors confronting SARS,  hence, those parents pressed the government to pull 300 intern students out of hospital by reporting "something" to the Control Yuan that Educational government already neglected its duty.
       ◆  Some state hospital paused emergency and regular medical services (門診), about 1/3 clinics there stopped their services by all kinds of "reasons" you can imagine.  124 nurses in a medical center in Southern Taiwan refused to take care of SARS patients and then resigned, some M.D.s also resigned for the same reason.
       ◆  Some medical center found hospital infection and  took "block & isolate " strategy, the next day more and more patients at ward escaped from that hospital, Taiwanese government received reports from all major medical centers in Northern, Central, Southern Taiwan, the hospital president,  and Infection Control directors concealed SARS outbreak within the hospital to avoid losing face, avoid dropping profit-performance, and/or avoid being sealed off the hospital,  this serious situations became major cause that Taiwan's SARS continued to spread larger and larger.     
       ◆  The work ethics, concealing SARS outbreak, delaying reporting to center government or rejecting SARS patients to avoid profiting worse are the most important reasons resulting in hospital onset of infection and spreading SARS from bad to worse in Taiwan. 

　

　

  ◆ Mass media reported a few years ago that very few NTU medical students like to take medical-ethics sort course, although Medical educators are increasingly stressing the importance of training in the ethical issues encountered in clinical practice ( National ChenKun University -  http://ped.hosp.ncku.edu.tw/chinese/xoops/modules/tinyd/index.php?id=11).  

　

◆  Taiwanese personality/character, pls click for details... No.1 ranking on google for a long time!

　

★

★6.  Physicians、Politics、society
     ●  United Daily, 1-12-2020, editorial opinion: During presidential election campaign, some citizen supporting different political party intended to use NTUH rest-room but was driven out by NTU medical college student.   

     ●   FTV(民視)<Taiwan History(台灣演義)> 4-16-2017 , "Taiwan University Medical School"  (for details pls ref to youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf2VRok0uRO2bH10tnVg9rWCIGeddXcSk)

              

National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH)●  

●  Taiwan University Hospital had major medical achievements, including Asian No.1 records

 　

Taiwan physicians social status became lower

　

●  Taiwanese physicians' social status is not as good as before

(After National Health Insurance putting into effect,  Taiwanese people's consciousness rises, and usually make treatment requests to their M.D.,.. resulting in Physician-Patient relationship under tension)

   
         ●    ●   "High physicians cure the nation" / Former NTU dean Lee (李鎮源) urged freedom of expression and human rights in Nation's Day of '91, and called physicians together, eventually, only 50- out of 1000+ NTUH physicians joined that protest.   Reports pointed out Taiwanese physicians're afraid of speaking freely which may damages their future, since so many elites were killed in 228 political event, some victims got serious consequences for sort of minor mistakes, all these experiences and perspective deep rooted in some medical people's mind, and became motive to fight back.     

　

●  Taiwan University Medical School lacks humanism thoughts

(Taiwan's current social value system is rapidly changing the culture in medical circle  / Dean of NTU medical school (張上淳) advised that
always keep in mind a love-based, "patient-centered", and humanistic-care thinking  )
　 　

★

   

Taiwan's high CovID-19 death rate - why ??

Taiwan's CovID-10 recovery rate and death rate both are worse than Asia average and world average...

SCMP, 2021-6-9,  scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3136609/coronavirus-critics-ask-why-taiwans-death-rate-higher-global:  Taiwan has a fatality-per-infection rate of 2.78 per cent (jumps to 4.2 % at 6-23) compared with global average 2.14 per cent.  critics ask why Taiwan’s death rate is higher than the global pandemic average ?
Taiwanese government's official answer is mainly because of the acute rise in cases in the past month and because many patients had pre-existing chronic diseases。 CDC at 2021-6-25 changed its phrase and said that's because aged 60+ elders stand for 90% deaths.  
However, the real causes probably are  ... most elders are assigned to be low priority group by the gov. and have not got vaccinated (by contrast, 寰宇 news, 2021-6-25: more than half of Japanese elders aged 65+ got it already, EU urged speeding it up to fight corona-virus variant )
　

◆◆shortage of vaccines  /   elders are lower priority group in waiting line
      (1)  New York Times, 2021-5-21: Taiwan focused on developing its own vaccine, which has yet to pan out, and did not hustle for overseas doses. (Taiwan's vaccine probably can not get the green light from the global health body, media question the gov. trying to benefit from vaccine) 。CTV news, 2021-6-25: Taiwan government refuses to green light Buddhist group (慈濟) applying to purchase and donate 5 million Pfizer BNT vaccine doses.  KMT politician and lawmaker said "it must be president Tsai I. W. ", "she does not want many vaccines in Taiwan". 
      (2)  Global Times, 2021-6-18,  Taiwan CDC , 2021-6-25, 2021-6-8:  90+% deaths are aged 60+ elder residents。 News, 2021-6-5: about 70% sever patients are aged 60+.   Unlike some major western countries giving elders priority for vaccination, Taiwanese elders and those with chronic disease stand behind the waiting queue, even now, they are in 6th and 11th/10th priority ( www-ws.pthg.gov.tw/Upload/2015pthg/82/relfile/10275/502184/6-9版covid-19疫苗公費接種對象_att1.pdf). 

      (3)  so many Taiwanese abuse privilege to jump long queue to get vaccinated. CTS  TV news (華視) 2021-6-9: some have privilege to take vaccines  ! ;  Next TV, 2021-6-11: Air-force hospital vaccinated privilege people.  CTV news (中視), 2021-6-9 : Lawmaker slammed abusing power to vaccination, just like Taiwan's lousy judiciary ("有錢判生 沒錢判死"  ―  "有錢免排  沒錢等埋" ) .  TTV news, 2021-6-23: Taipei mayor slammed a best-known law maker was repeatedly "illegally" lobbying vaccine doses.  FTV news, 2021-6-9 (8:00pm ~) criticizes Taipei government for vaccination privilege.


◆◆inadequate medicines /   (1) CTV news, 2021-6-9: In 2020, only one hospital, NTUH,  can use  Remdesivir, a specific remedy for CovID-19 patients, in earlier 2021, all hospitals need CDC's approval (was rejected quite often) and usually take 8 ~ 12 hours for patients to have it, sometimes it's too late. (gov changed the regulation recently) (2) China Times, 2021-6-9 : Doctors say increasing deaths are related to inadeguate medication   chinatimes.com/opinion/20210608005991-262101?chdtv   (3) United Daily, editorial, Jun. 2021: severe patients awaited one week but failed to have Remdesivir, but CDC said adequate medication for patients. ―  expert comments:  patients are hard to have it, certainly medicines are enough。 (udn.com/news/story/7339/5513808?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2  楊哲銘).  Taiwan national insurance system was suspected to care money more than human lives and health.  Expert in UDN 2021-6-7 advices more investments on national insurance to assure medical quality.

◆◆wrong order  /   Financial Times, 2021-6-1: Taipei put patients with light symptoms up in the best-equipped hospital beds before the local outbreak. Hospitals were therefore not ready to rapidly take up the large numbers of severe cases arriving now。

ft.com/content/9c0aaf96-28ed-4dee-88a9-38557a200813   (Taiwan failed to take flexible measure, why ?)  CTV news , 2021-6-17: patient complains can not have a cup of water for 2 days, even needs to ask democratic representative to talk with hospital about this.  CTV, 2021-6-16: patient in quarantine hotel complains no one take care his high temperature for a long time, the situation is like " waiting for death".

◆◆lacking knowledge /   Guardian, 2021-6-7: Taiwan authorities hadn’t kept up with new scientific knowledge around virulent new strains,  theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/07/a-victim-of-its-own-success-how-taiwan-failed-to-plan-for-a-major-covid-outbreak

 
Taiwan did not give importance to the importance of ventilation , mass testing, or locking down hard and early, instead, they work on police investigation, tracing sys. and precision testings, etc.
   

◆◆actual number of infections /   the official number of infections has been questioned
.

　

　

 in Taiwan's medical and health-care system's mistake in fighting CovID-19   

 Full text: CovID on Taiwan

　

 ★  New York Times, 2021-5-20: This Day Was Bound to Come’ / border controls had shielded it from the worst of the pandemic. But new variants and a slow vaccine rollout gave the virus an opening.  nytimes.com/2021/05/20/world/asia/taiwan-covid-outbreak.html

★  TIME, 2021-5-20: a False Sense of Security, and a Little Secret Tea, Broke Down Taiwan's COVID-19 Defenses  time.com/6050316/taiwan-covid-19-outbreak-tea/

★  CBS, 2021-5-20: Taipei mayor says "The epidemic situation in Taiwan will be like a tight string: Under high pressure, it may snap at any time" cbsnews.com/news/taiwan-covid-cases-previous-success-story-now-record-coronavirus-surge/

★  The Guardian (UK), 2021-5-16: one of the world’s leading pandemic responses prompted partial lockdown measures in two cities... The level 3 alert covers about 6.5 million of Taiwan’s 24 million people ... (ps: CBS, 2021-5-20: covers entire Taiwan) had not implemented more stringent restrictions (level 4 alert) because residents might resist...  guidelines for hospitals to prioritise symptomatic Covid cases, saying dedicated beds were beginning to fill.    theguardian.com/world/2021/may/16/lockdowns-and-panic-buying-in-taiwan-as-covid-cases-rise)

★  L.A. Times, 2021-5-16: Taiwan, once a pandemic success story faces worst outbreak    latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-05-15/taiwan-covid19-pandemic-outbreak    


 ★  Business Insider, 2021-5-20: A New York Times piece warns that Taiwan's "high walls" may risk "isolating Taiwan economically and politically," and suggests that a strong border policy cannot and should not be a long-term strategy...Taiwan has prided itself in its transparency in containing the virus, yet double standards and stigma still found their way. businessinsider.com/taiwan-covid-19-paradise-health-politics-policy-cdc-2021-5

　

　

★ Guardian (UK), 10-31-2020: Now, Taipei's people browse, busk and greet each other with handshakes and hugs. It feels normal.   However, Taiwan has already "exported" dozens COVID-19 infected cases to a number of foreign countries, not sure yet who should be responsible for this,
according to United Daily, editorial, 10-31-2020
　

★ Apple Daily 7-8-2020:  expert (中央研究院研究員何美鄉) warned that many infected people without symptom in Taiwan.

　

★ New York Post  4-25-2020 : Taiwan deals with CovID-19 with "a lot more authoritarian.", "almost everyone is tracked.".  Taiwanese govt. responded at 4-28-2020 that Taiwanese would like to cooperate with our policy.  But the truth is Taiwan's "Big Brother" already sneaked into numerous families in the name of  Epidemic Prevention, by an injunction violating Tort Law and domineering over Constitution (凌駕憲法的侵權禁令) , without having noticed all nationals, in accordance with United Daily, editorial at 5-7-2020.   The ironic thing is after lifting Coronavirus Lockdown, Japan doesn't trust Taiwan's Epidemic Prevention, and has not put "democratic" Taiwan on their welcome list, many other countries did same thing to Taiwan.  The China Times, editorial (6-6-2020, 6-25-2020) analyzed one main reason is Taiwan rejects mass testing, even small-scale testing, the number of test per million people is 3000+, ranked world No. 138, about same level as that of African countries, even African Luanda tested double number of Taiwan's.  A famous National Taiwan University M.D. expert endorsed for Taiwan's policy :  there's no any CovID-19 in Taiwan, 3 weeks later, a Japanese girl staying Taiwan for 4 months was detected positive in Japan's airport.   Therefore, those free flow of information can be suspicious  and may endanger the world people.  According to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the new coronavirus may never show symptoms or fall ill — but can still transmit the illness to others (4-15-2020, Business Insider). Bill Gates in the New England Journal of Medicine: The prevalence of asymptomatic transmission doesn't bode well for global containment efforts.  All studies (CNBC 5-7-2020, Singapore's Blackbox Research and Toluna, Forbes 6-5-2020, 4-16-2020: The Deep Knowledge Group) concluded China is better than Taiwan on CovID-19 safety countries rankings.
　

　

　

　

★7.   Nurse  Taiwan Hospitals' illegal situation was/is serious
　

nPeople, 2024-4-5:  Instead of taking shelter themselves, nurses desperately cling to infants in nursery ward ( at the Ma Chérie Postpartum Care Center in Taipei) during Taiwan's 7.4 magnitude earthquake, video shows.  CNN video msn.com/en-us/news/world/nurses-desperately-cling-to-infants-in-nursery-ward-during-taiwan-earthquake-video-shows/ar-BB1l5IiH

nCommonHealth (2023): The turnover rate of the nurses is high.
 nUnited Daily, 2022-9-26: In the past two decades, hospitals have often failed to hire enough number of nurses, a few nurses take the work of many nurses suppose to do, and the working schedule usually can not be well arranged, therefore there is a so-called " Sweat Nurse".   Besides, the salaries and benefits of nurses in clinics are difficult to compete with those in hospitals, the nursing manpower ratio of hospital to clinics is 4.4 to 1.      udn.com/news/story/7339/6639908?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub7339_pulldownmenu_v2

　

　 ◆
◆  TVBS 3-29-2019:  in NTUH,  MDs of each wards come emergency room to 'pick up' patients to be hospitalized, however, if you select an old patient with multiple diseases or bad daily life functions ( e.g., incontinence of urine or feces), the nurse(s) may give you her attitude to make you sick ...  Taipei Mayor Ko ( 柯文哲) criticized ... for details pls. read NTUH 7D  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD_BLkZky00

◆

　

　

　

  ◆

◆  Some nurses are patient and nice,  some others are not .  Take Taiwan's probably best  (AIT once called it  a Jewel on the Crown, but changed  the name later ), NTUH, as an example, nurses in wards usually are good,  but in emergency room, some failed to have blood-draw job done (feb. '18), some got medicines stuck in NG tube (July '19, but she has strong sense of responsibility to follow hospital's regulations to feed patient with medicine, some others just gave medicine powder to patient's families) ...   At 7-2-2019 about 11:40 am I experienced  a  female nurse made a sudden loud noise (combining sort of  roaring and horselaugh ) while passing by a very old patient with heart failure, it's short of  basic medical specialty   !!    besides, I saw hard-working ones as well.  

According to <The Liberty times> (2015-03-30) and <The New Lens>( https://www.thenewslens.com/article/14636),  The ratio of nurses and patients in NTUH emergency room, 1: 14+,  is same as that of  a "combat hospital", which worsen the relationships among patients, nurses and medical Doctors.

◆

　

 ◆   United Daily, 5-6-2019: One dietitian props the hospital up, hard working environment results in 60% of dietitians chose not to work in the hospitals 

◆

　

      

         ◆ <United Daily News> (3-3-2017) : Unlike developed countries, Taiwan legislation has not protected nurses/patients ratio.
         ◆ <The Liberty Times> 5-12-2017 : New labor policy ("一例一休") worsen the the ratio of nurse and patients in medical centers and regional hospitals.
       ◆ <United Daily News> (12-31-2013,  <台灣醫安問題 須誠實面對> >) : The ratio of nurse and patients, 1:20, was heard many times...

       ◆ <The Liberty Times> reported at 5-11-2015 -  Taiwan hospitals' means for exploitation of nurses include :

                  ◆ Voluntary Servitude Contract to sell oneself (綁約賣身契) , heavy work only get you salary lower than that in previous year  ...
                    ◆  Nurses were asked to give up vacation for overtime works, or for on-call working a shift on duty, all these extra working hours were converted to an outcry price, may be as low as NT50 (USD1.7 or so) per hour.
                    ◆   performance bonuses (「績效獎金」), allowance (「工作津貼」) ,  faked salary on book...  all became hospitals' weapon to control nurses.   Nurses can't get overtime payment, which can not be found by routine labor-checks. ( 加班沒有加班費，而勞動檢查也永遠查不到的結果。)


         ◆   Fake nurses/patients ratio.  The Evaluation of The Effectiveness of The Hospitals by government can not find something like nurse working in the name of  technician, nurse-license was used for fake statistics...

        details pls. ref. to Taiwan enrolled nurses general union (護理工會) and Taiwan Labour Front (台灣勞工陣線) web-site http://labor.ngo.tw/news/news-now/189-news20150511  or Liberty Times  http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/1313447
        ◆   The capital (management) side completely controls unreasonable payments,  in spite of that the government reiterated on-call time should be count for working hours, but investigation this time found 96% nurses' on-call time has not included in their wages, Taiwan's hospitals seriously violated the law.  (違法的問題非常嚴重。)
        ◆  Next TV (壹電視/正晶限時批) at 9-27-2015:  The ratio of nurses and patients in Taiwan's hospitals is absurd. (都太離譜了)
        ◆  <The China Times > (1-12-2016): Taipei City found all hospitals it check violated the labor law.  
        ◆  <The Liberty Times>, <The China Times >, <The United Daily> at 12-30-2015: 87% of Taiwan's large hospitals had surplus in their balance sheet of 2015, but staff/labor costs decreased from 45.86% downto 40.06%, medical staffs are still in a "Sweat factory" status, hospitals used their surplus on "arms race" -  aesthetic medicine, Proton Therapy, Heavy particle therapy, high-end medical check, The da Vinci sys., etc. to attract people to pay on their own dimes so that hospitals will have more surplus, besides, medical resources concentrate on metro large hospitals, it's unfair to remote countryside patients, in the future, it is expected to exhibit a polarizing outcome ― middle and smaller sized hospitals likely will closed, only small clinics and metro hospitals left or survived.

ps:  TW  amended the law http://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20170407000409-260114