Dr. Po-Chang Lee, Director General of NHIA, inspected the mobile health care in Danei District, Tainan City, on October 11. At the same time, he expressed his gratitude to Chi Mei Liuying Hospital and Tainan Municipal Hospital for providing outpatient services, health promotion, and home health care.
In the 37 administrative districts of Tainan City, 15 districts are medically underserved areas. Through delivering mobile health care to 79 underserved locations, township coverage has reached the goal of 100%. Meanwhile, the population of Danei District is less than 9,000 people and the percentage of people over the age of 65 is 26%. There are only 3 western medicine clinics, 1 dental clinic, and 2 pharmacies, which are all at Danei Village and neighboring Neijiang Village where the administrative centers are located. There are no medical institutions in the remaining 8 villages. Therefore, the mobile health service to 8 villages operated by Chi Mei Liuying Hospital and Tainan Municipal Hospital fills the gaps by providing regional hospital-level health care.
Starting in 2009, Chi Mei Liuying Hospital has undertaken the Danei District mobile health care, expanding the program from 3 villages to 6. Community care is offered to the residents of Danei District from Monday to Friday. In addition to outpatient medical services, it also offers hepatitis B and C prevention and treatment, drug safety, and other health promotion campaigns. Breast cancer screening and COVID-19 vaccination are also conducted through the mobile hospital. Furthermore, the mobile medical group visits the elderly who live alone to provide blood pressure monitoring, drug education, and wound care. The program has received high affirmation from the local public and the satisfaction score reached 99%. Starting in April 2022, Tainan Municipal Hospital will also be stationed in Shicheng Village and Shihu Village of Danei District to provide specialist care, such as orthopedics and internal medicine. The NHI mobile health services satisfy the medical needs of Danei District residents, improving and enhancing healthcare accessibility.
Director General Po-Chang Lee pointed out that in order to safeguard people in rural areas, the NHIA has listed areas where one doctor has to care for over 2600 people as areas with insufficient medical resources (or underserved areas). The NHIA has budgeted a special fund of NT$850 million every year to encourage western medicine, Chinese medicine, and dental professionals to periodically provide mobile health care in the community. In 2021, 670 medical institutions around Taiwan has serviced 1,565 mobile health care locations, helping 703,866 people. If one western medicine clinic serves 15,572 clinical visits in 2021, this is equivalent to having 45 clinics providing medical care in underserved areas, greatly increasing the accessibility of medical care of residents in rural areas.