Medical Commission Reform | Lo Chung-mau: Rescheduling Meetings with Session Caps; Personnel Changes if Targets Not Met

SighingCashier · 2026-03-15T05:06:22+00:00

The government is drafting a reform bill for the Medical Council. Lo Chung-mao mentioned that there will be limits on expert reports and the number of member meetings, but there will be no mandatory specification of case handling timeframes. Regarding the complaint processing speed after the reform, he believes it is difficult to set hard targets. The public hospital fee reform has shown significant results, with a reduction in emergency department visits and shorter waiting times.

SighingCashier

2026-03-15 05:06:22

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The government is drafting legislation to reform the Medical Council. Secretary for Health, Lo Chung-mau, stated on the TV program “Speak Clearly” that limits will be set on the number of times expert witnesses submit reports and members reschedule meetings. However, he believes it is difficult to specify strict time limits for case processing.

Lo Chung-mau said: “Is it possible to set a time limit when expert witnesses agree? For example, their reports should be submitted within one month, two months, or even three months, rather than waiting indefinitely. Members of the hearing panel should have a deadline to participate in hearings; they can’t say I’m unavailable on this day or that day.” The time limits will be determined by the Medical Council, and the key is whether the Council can actually do it.

Regarding consequences or penalties if standards are not met, Lo Chung-mau said they will consider whether relevant personnel are competent and may replace some members. However, he believes the word “punishment” will not appear because Medical Council members are unpaid and serve as volunteers. If there is serious dereliction of duty by administrative or legal personnel, existing civil service mechanisms are in place to handle it.

When asked how much the overall complaint handling process might speed up after the reforms, Lo Chung-mau indicated that some aspects could see significant improvements. However, setting rigid targets by the government would be difficult, as Medical Council inquiries are very similar to court proceedings. “We don’t set a specific timeframe for court cases either, and we don’t insist on completing hearings within a certain period, to ensure procedural justice.”

Significant Results in Public Hospital Fee Reforms

Since the implementation of fee reforms in public hospitals over three months ago, Lo Chung-mau said that the total number of emergency department visits has decreased by more than 10%, with some days seeing a 15% drop. Urgent and non-urgent patient numbers are down about 20%, and the average waiting time has decreased from 144 minutes to 117 minutes. He believes the number of emergency visits may not rebound as before. Although the number of general outpatient and specialist outpatient visits has not decreased, other improvements have been observed.

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