A SAFER EMERGENCY ROOM?

According to Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine, nearly 90% of the doctors in emergency rooms have experienced threats from patients, while as high as 40% of them have been attacked in the past.

In order to guard his own rights, an ER doctor who went through a similar situation, is demanding a constitutional interpretation, to allow medical experts to refuse to treat patients when necessary.

In response, the Department of Health said that it would be a violation of the Medical Care Act for doctors to turn down patients.

One night in March, a couple went to the emergency room at En Chu Kong Hospital seeking treatment.

Suspecting that ER nurses were working too slow, the drunk couple then attacked medical personnel at the ER, including the ER doctor, Lin Yi-chi, resulting in concussion and bruises in his left ear.

Dr. Lin pressed charges against his attackers, but this is already the second attack in his 6-year career as an ER doctor, while he was in a coma for 10 seconds after he was first attacked by a gangster at the ER several years ago.

In order to protect the safety of ER medical personnel, he decided to demand for a constitutional interpretation regarding the law that requires doctors to protect human life.

Dr. Lin emphasized that it's not his intention to allow doctors to select patients but to draw attention to the problem of violence in Taiwan's hospital emergency rooms.

"I think that the Council of Grand Justices need to offer an interpretation on the Medical Care Act,

for instance, when a patient is threatening me with a knife, or a gun,

should I treat his wounds?"

He hopes that doctors can be allowed to refuse treating perpetrators of such violence, based on the constitutional right that protects people's rights to life.

However, his proposal is not supported by the Department of Health, which believed that such application is a violation to the Medical Care Act.

"According to article 60 of the Medical Care Act, Hospitals and clinics shall provide emergency medical care to emergency patients, and shall not delay without cause.

Doctors who violate the act will be fined from NT$100,000 to 500,000."

According to the survey conducted by the Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine, nearly 90% of the doctors were once threatened while 40% of them were even attacked with violence.

Therefore, improving the safety for medical personnel has become an important issue for the authorities.

In an effort to reduce such violence, the Department of Health added that it has discussed with hospitals regarding this problem, requesting hospitals with emergency rooms to establish security system, hotlines with police stations, and 24-hr security guards within three months.

It has also requested emergency rooms to set up a waiting area to separate the medical personnel, patients and other people, while restricting the number of people accompanying the patient.

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