Sars: Hospital staff quit

2003-05-19 11:35

Taipei - Taiwan's healthcare system came under intense pressure on Monday as medical workers resigned en masse over the Sars outbreak and more hospitals were forced to suspend services.

As President Chen Shui-bian inaugurated the island's first designated Sars hospital, 21 staff from Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital quit after coming out of a period of mandatory quarantine.

"It is not that we ignore our duties, but...there are shadows in our minds," Hoping doctor Yeh Chi-huan told reporters.

The mass resignation follows the death on Sunday of a 49-year-old Hoping nurse, who is expected to be listed as Taiwan's 41st Sars victim out of 344 cases. A doctor and two other nurses had already succumbed to Sars at Hoping.

Scores of Hoping staff resigned shortly after the hospital was shut down on April 20 to curb Taiwan's first mass outbreak of Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

And local media reported that 124 staff at Chang Gung Hospital in the southern county of Kaohsiung have quit after the death of a doctor last week.

The United Daily News said one doctor was begged by his parents to leave, while another nurse was urged to resign by her husband.

"We do not want to become martyrs...we need sufficient equipment to protect us while treating Sars patients," a Chang Gung nurse told local television station TVBS.

There are also reports of sporadic resignations at clinics and major hospitals.

President Chen sought to rally the embattled medical workers as he inaugurated Sungshan Military Hospital as the island's first designated Sars facility.

Chen promised hospital staff treating Sars patients would have access sufficient equipment to protect them from the disease, and called for stricter controls to prevent the spread of the virus at hospitals.

"All of us have to be prepared for a long-term combat against Sars," Chen said.

But Chen's call came as two more hospitals, Guan Tu hospital in Taipei and Fungshan hospital in Kaohsiung, became the latest to announce partial closures over Sars scares.

Both hospitals are to close their emergency and outpatient services. Taipei's Taiwan University Hospital and Mackay Memorial Hospital, along with Chang Dung, have already been forced to close wards.

Hoping and Jen Chi hospitals in Taipei have closed completely.

- AFX