Several Taiwanese hospitals are offering medical assistance to the nation’s diplomatic allies in Latin America and the Caribbean in an effort to promote medical diplomacy, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said on Thursday.
Changhua Christian Hospital sent a six-member team of doctors and nurses to provide medical assistance in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from April 5 to Sunday last week, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Deputy Director-General Lino Cheng (鄭力城) said.
The team helped train local medical personnel, as well as providing medical treatment to locals, Cheng said.
The Changhua-based hospital is sending another six-member team on a three-week mission to the two island nations today, Cheng said.
The second group’s trip is to last until June 14, as part of the hospital’s long-term efforts to help improve medical services in the two allies, Cheng said.
A team from Cathay General Hospital in Taipei has been in Paraguay to conduct artificial joint replacement surgeries in cooperation with Paraguayan Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare and a local hospital, Cheng said.
They were scheduled to perform 20 operations during a trip, which began on May 9, he added.
The operations being provided free-of-charge to the patients.
A representative from Taipei Medical University’s Center for Management and Development is scheduled to visit Panama next month to explore possibilities for medical cooperation, Cheng said.
The government has been working with Taiwanese hospitals to closely cooperate with many of the nation’s 22 diplomatic allies in providing public healthcare and medical assistance.
Three passengers and the assailant were reportedly injured in a knife attack on the Taichung MRT on Tuesday. The Rapid Transit Brigade of the Taichung Police Department is still investigating the incident, with no motive immediately apparent. Taichung Police Commissioner Lee Wen-chang (李文章) said that at least four people were injured in the attack, and the suspect has been taken into custody. The incident occurred at about 11:15am on a train car near Taichung City Hall Station. Witnesses reported seeing a man attacking others with a knife, while other passengers tried to grab his hair or fend him off with umbrellas. Three people were reportedly
Schools in Keelung and four New Taipei City districts are to be closed to the public until Wednesday, as police continue searching for an escaped patient convicted of attempted murder. The New Taipei City Government on Tuesday decided to close campuses in Wanli (萬里), Sijhih (汐止), Pingsi (平溪) and Rueifang (瑞芳) districts to outsiders, as the patient was last spotted taking a bus toward Rueifang from Keelung. Police patrols have been increased near schools, the city government said, advising students to travel in groups and not linger near campus. The Keelung City Government earlier announced that campuses and local representative offices in the
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Groups have organized protests at the Chiayi Cultural Park in Chiayi City, the National Museum of Taiwan Literature in Tainan and Kaohsiung Central Park Activist groups and civil society organizations called for nationwide demonstrations today to demand transparency in the legislative process, as legislators are scheduled to resume voting on a set of controversial legislative reforms. Today’s planned activities led by Taiwan Citizen Front are to be a continuation of Tuesday’s protests against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers attempts to pass bills without undergoing what critics say is the proper review process. In a news release yesterday, Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union and other groups urged people to protest on the streets bordering the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to
Taipei police on Saturday arrested 24 female Thai tourists on suspicion of working as hostesses and engaging in illegal activities at an underground bar in Zhongshan District (中山), the distict’s police precinct said in a statement yesterday. The police also arrested five other people involved in the operation, including the 29-year-old bar owner surnamed Chiang (蔣), and 17 customers, the statement said. The 24 Thai women were fined an undisclosed amount in accordance with the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) by the police and transferred to a National Immigration Agency (NIA) special brigade in Taipei for repatriation to Thailand. The cases of