Taiwan seeks backing to attend world health meet in Geneva
Taiwan is calling on the Philippines and other World Health Organization (WHO) member states to allow it to participate in the 72nd World Health Assembly and related technical meetings, mechanisms and activities to be held from May 20 to 28 in Geneva.
“WHO should abide by its own principles of inclusiveness and universal participation. Taiwan is a worthy and reliable partner that can help countries around the world achieve the meaningful goal of universal health coverage by 2030,” the Taipei government said in an open letter distributed to journalists worldwide.
With its advances in digital healthcare, Taiwan pointed out that it is a “worthy and reliable partner” that can help countries around the world achieve the meaningful goal of universal health coverage by 2030.
Boasting of its widely regarded National Health Insurance (NHI) system, its NHI ranked 14th in the 2017 Global Access to Healthcare Index of The Economist, and ninth in the 2018 Health Care Efficiency Index of Bloomberg Finance.
“These digital health technologies have enhanced care services in many ways. They have improved the quality of care and reduced costs, in terms of both time and money, by properly matching health services with the locations where these services are provided. They have also lowered the potential risks arising from repeated examinations. Related systems are patient-centered, meaning that they are organized around the complex needs and expectations of patients and communities, helping realize the concept of good hospitals in the community and good doctors in the neighborhood,” it said.
Aside from its competitive advantages in information technology and medicine to deliver better care and enhance the health of the overall population, the Taipei government also said it provided scholarships for in-service programs and higher education to thousands of people, both Taiwanese and foreign nationals, in fields such as medicine, nursing, dentistry, healthcare administration and public health in response to the goals set by the Health Workforce 2030 of the WHO.