◎ Xie Wenhui
Comparing June 2013 and June 2020 just after the COVID-19 epidemic, there were only 145 new doctors left in the hospital, but the number of primary Western medicine doctors increased by 574. Then, comparing June 2014 and June 2013, the hospital added 412 new doctors and primary Western medicine. Compared with June 2014, when the epidemic returned to normal, the hospital added 523 new doctors, and the number of primary-level western medicine doctors increased by 480 during the same period (the actual number of new doctors should be slightly higher than this figure, because retired doctors are deducted).
Of the total health insurance, Western medicine accounts for about 85%, of which hospitals account for about 68%, and grassroots Western medicine accounts for about 17%. The total amount of the two is hospital 4: grassroots 1. The distribution of new doctors should be similar to this. However, from the above-mentioned data in recent years, we can clearly see a trend. Physicians who enter the workplace regard hospitals as a fearful future. If we take a closer look at the emergency and critical departments in hospitals, the situation of doctors in these important core medical areas will be even more shocking than the above data. Emergency and critical departments are not only the core pillars of hospitals, but also the most important core value of health insurance. Therefore, it is a very clear reality that Taiwan's national health insurance is rapidly collapsing from the core.
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Emergency and critical departments are not only the core pillars of hospitals, but also the most important core value of health insurance, and Taiwan’s national health insurance is rapidly collapsing from the core; schematic diagram. (File photo)
Faced with the current severe situation, most young doctors want to jump ship from the hospital and leave after basic training. However, urgent and difficult departments require longer professional development training. Even if the number of trained doctors every year remains stable in the future, the vacancies in urgent and difficult departments will still not be filled. The problem with health insurance in the future is not just the occasional emergency room congestion, but also the fact that no one even attends the emergency room. Major diseases that should be hospitalized and require surgery will have to wait until the end of the world because there are not enough professional manpower. This is already a major national security-level crisis that we cannot avoid and must face.
The problem with future health insurance is not just the occasional emergency room congestion, but also the fact that no one even attends the emergency room. Major diseases that should be hospitalized and require surgery will have to wait until the end of the world because there are not enough professional manpower; diagram. (File photo)
The "Big Four" and "Big Five" have been in vain for more than ten years, and the competent authorities have continued to invest resources to propose relevant solutions. However, the hollowing out of urgent and difficult departments has not stopped and has become more and more serious. The collapse of core medical care is already the current scene. "This generation of young people attaches great importance to the quality of life" has become an excuse for everyone to place blame.
In the face of the imminent crisis, please pragmatically admit that the trivial struggles you have made in the past are obviously ineffective struggles, and face an unavoidable question, "They are also TSMC engineers who have sold their lives and blood, why are young people of the same generation rushing to do it?" Why?
Just like doctors, TSMC engineers work hard to sell their lives. Why are young people of this generation rushing to do it? (Bloomberg file photo)
(The author is the executive director of the Hospital Medical Service Review Executive Committee of the Taiwan Hospital Association)
