Encourage medical institutions to open clinics even during holidays, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare has injected a bonus of 250 million

In order to improve the capacity of medical services during the consecutive holidays, the Ministry of Health and Welfare will report to the Executive Yuan today (8th) on "the capacity of emergency department during the consecutive holidays." The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that it will refer to the experience of this year's Spring Festival holiday bonus incentive policy and invest 250 million yuan to encourage patients from October to For medical institutions that open on consecutive national holidays in December, a 50% increase will be included in the outpatient examination fees and pharmaceutical service fees for outpatient services on Sundays during the consecutive holidays. Even during the holidays, the examination fees, nursing fees and pharmaceutical service fees for emergency and inpatient cases will also be increased by 50%.

Executive President Toh Wing-tai pointed out at the meeting that the Ministry of Health and Welfare predicts that this wave of influenza-like epidemics will slow down after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. The new coronavirus epidemic will also exit the epidemic period in mid-October after the number of medical visits has declined for seven consecutive weeks. However, the government should still make every effort to maintain the stability of medical capacity to avoid impact on medical service provision or emergency congestion due to consecutive holidays.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Health Insurance will refer to the experience of the bonus incentive policy during the Spring Festival holiday this year (2026) and inject 250 million yuan to reward hospitals that open clinics during the consecutive national holidays from October to December, including "Sunday outpatient clinics" during the consecutive holidays. For cases, the outpatient examination fee and pharmaceutical service fee will be increased by 50%; for "emergency and hospitalization" cases during consecutive holidays, the examination fee, nursing fee and pharmaceutical service fee will be increased by 50%, and more than 80% of the aforementioned rewards must be allocated to relevant personnel.

Zhuang Renxiang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said at the press conference after the Executive Yuan meeting that the Spring Festival holiday is long, so the 25% emergency department congestion can be alleviated by increasing clinic capacity by about 30%. The three-day holiday period is short, mainly because he hopes to increase the opening rate of primary-level Western medicine on Sundays. He hopes that after the policy is implemented, it can increase from about 16% to 20% to solve the emergency department crowd.

As for regional joint prevention, the Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that it will continue to monitor indicators such as the number of medical visits at levels 1 and 2 of the emergency diagnosis and injury classification, hospital bed openings and emergency admissions, and combine it with the reward system to encourage medical institutions to properly dispatch medical manpower and beds, and strengthen regional medical cooperation and emergency diversion. Through advance deployment, central and local cooperation and incentive measures, it will increase the medical capacity during consecutive holidays, appropriately divert medical demand, and reduce the pressure on emergency services.