Taiwan in new appeal for inclusion in World Health Assembly

TAIPEI - Taiwan's Health Minister, Shih-Chung Chen , has again appealed to the World Health Organisation ( WHO) to respond favourably to what he called "widespread calls" for Taiwan's inclusion in the World Health Assembly (WHA) and related technical meetings, mechanisms and activities.

Chen said 2019 marked the 24th anniversary of the implementation in Taiwan of universal health coverage, with its National Health Insurance (NHI) covering the full spectrum of essential and high-quality health services, from prevention and treatment to rehabilitation and palliative care.

"The provision of preventive and primary healthcare is the most cost-efficient approach to achieving universal health coverage," he said.

"Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare has developed tools utilising artificial intelligence and cloud computing to access the massive databases it has built over the past 24 years.

"For instance, the MediCloud system was launched to enable healthcare providers to query patients' medical records within the NHI system, while the PharmaCloud system provides prescription drug information to physicians and pharmacists.

"Currently, through digital cloud tools, community-based primary care providers in Taiwan can retrieve test reports from secondary and tertiary institutions and receive prescription information."

Chen said these digital health technologies had enhanced care services in many ways, improving the quality of care and reducing costs by properly matching health services with the locations where these services were provided.

"They have also lowered the potential risks arising from repeated examinations.

"Related systems are patient-centred, meaning that they are organisd around the complex needs and expectations of patients and communities, helping realise the concept of good hospitals in the community and good doctors in the neighbourhood."

Chen said that, at a time when achieving universal health coverage had never been more urgent and important, Taiwan had actively sought to share its first-rate experience in healthcare reform.

While he did not name China, Chen said it was regrettable that what he called "political obstruction" had deprived Taiwan of the right to participate in and contribute to the WHA - WHO's decision-making body.

In the past two years, he said, WHO had denied Taiwanese delegates access to the assembly.

"Nevertheless, Taiwan remains committed to enhancing regional and global health co-operation, sharing its experience and capacity in healthcare reform with countries in need, and making universal health coverage a reality by 2030." www.mofa.gov.tw (ATI).