《TAIPEI TIMES》 Ministry to implement new care services

CHANGES: Services include developmental screenings for children below the age of seven and amendments to allow doctors to provide care over electronic devices

/ Staff writer, with CNA

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The Ministry of Health and Welfare is to implement a series of new services from today, including childhood development screening, an expansion of telemedicine services and in-home acute care.

Six developmental screenings for children under the age of seven would be implemented and subsidized by the ministry, it said.

Children to undergo checks are those aged six to 10 months, 10 to 18 months, 18 to 24 months, two to three, three to five and five to seven. Those with health insurance cards would be eligible.

The screenings would be conducted by doctors, who would check the child’s gross and fine motor skills, speech and language development, and personal and social skills at each stage.

If a child’s development appears to be lagging, they would promptly receive intervention, the ministry said.

Amendments to the Rules of Medical Diagnosis and Treatment by Telecommunications （通訊診察治療辦法） would expand the situations where doctors can provide medical care over electronic devices.

These scenarios include long-term care for patients with chronic diseases, terminal illnesses, mobility problems and infectious diseases, as well as those who are in correctional institutions or are victims of disaster.

Medical services would include medical consultation, psychotherapy and the provision of documents authorizing physical examinations.

Patients deemed stable would be able to get their medication through an electronic prescription, while those with chronic mental illnesses or terminal illnesses would have conditional access to controlled drugs, such as morphine.

About 2.47 million people would benefit from the amendments, the ministry said.

The National Health Insurance Administration would test a range of in-home acute care services, starting with patients whose ailments can be controlled by administering long-acting antibiotics, such as those with pneumonia, urinary tract infections or soft tissue infections.

Patients who only need antibiotics would be able to stay at home during the seven to nine days of their acute care, and would receive telemedicine, routine doctor’s visits or consultations with specialists.

Additionally, the public would be able to obtain free COVID-19 rapid test kits from 2,500 clinics across Taiwan starting today, as the ministry expects the rise in infections to plateau soon.

The kits would expire in September or December, or January next year, Centers for Disease Control spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui （曾淑慧） said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES