Page 68 - 2022 Taiwan Health and Welfare Report

▏Section 2 Emergency Medical Transport
To ensure emergency patients in offshore areas requiring medical treatment can receive proper care. As such, the MOHW has followed the principles of "relocating doctors instead of patients" and "health cannot wait" to promote the policy of strengthening local medical care assist with Emergency Air Medical Transport (EAMT). Implementations are summarized as follows:
1. National Aeromedical Approval Center (NAAC): The center is charged with provision of round- the-clock emergency medical consultations, evaluation of the necessity for transportation, and assisting in aircraft dispatch. Of the 290 applications for EAMT in 2021, 272 cases were approved.
2. Base for Ambulance Aircrafts: In August 2018, the MOHW began keeping aircrafts stationed in three offshore counties—Kinmen, Lienchiang, and Penghu—so that they can offer transport services of emergency air medical from offshore areas to Taiwan Island, critical condition-prompted homecoming, emergency interisland transportation, and other official plans. To make EAMT services be "double the efficiency in half the time", and guard the health care for people in offshore areas.
3. The establishment of Aeromedical Transport and Teleconsultation Platform (ATTP): MOHW completed total 105 sites in indigenous communities and offshore areas in October 6 2019, and the ATTP began operating. It continued to operate in 2020, providing multi- party medical information to NAAC, responsible regional hospitals and to offshore doctors for diagnosis and treatment decision-making and assessment of EAMT requirements, reducing the pressure on first-line doctors and lowering unnecessary referral risk.
4. Enhancing healthcare ability of EAMT services for medical personnel: The local government Quality Improvement Project for Emergency Medical Transport was subsidized, and EAMT- related education carried out together with aircrafts simulation training. To strengthen EAMT care competences for offshore medical personnel, in 2021 Pingtung, Taitung,
Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties were subsidized and a professional group commissioned to carry out 17 education and training sessions, 542 people were trained.
▏Section 3 Training and Employment Retention
1. The objective of training government-supported physicians is to replenish grassroot personnel and human resources in remote regions. Anticipating a growth in demand for physicians in the future, the Ministry has restarted the Plan for Training of Government-Supported Physicians in Key Subjects. The plan involves the training of 500 government-supported physicians. The training has been restricted to key specializations and upon completing the training in full, these government- supported physicians are required to serve at hospitals on offshore islands, remote areas or rudimentary health stations. In conjunction with the support programs for medical centers to assist hospitals in remote regions, government- supported physicians may also choose to fulfill their obligations in different stages in order to retain their opportunities at returning to specific medical center for further education so that they can maintain their competence for the purpose of career planning. On top of that, the Ministry also offers incentives to encourage government-supported physicians to extend their services in remote areas in the form of salary adjustment or additional benefits in order to retain their services at hospitals or health stations in remote regions.
2. Conducting the "Indigenous People and Offshore Areas Medical Personnel Nurturing Plan": To fill the vacancies of medical personnel in indigenous and offshore areas, and to enhance local people to serve in their hometown, the MOHW has implemented plan of nurturing medical personnel since 1969. As of 2021, 1,309 medical personnel have been nurtured, including 679 doctors (329 indigenous people, 339 people from offshore areas, 11 from remote areas) and 630 other medical personnel. The retention rate after the required period of service is 70%.
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