| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 行政管理碩士學程 === 100 === The Department of Health, Executive Yuan, and the Ministry of Education stipulated that a total of no more than 1,300 medical students may be produced each year. As a result, until 2009, Taiwan, R.O.C. only had 11 medical schools that accepted students in medicine. High school and university graduates wishing to pursue the medical profession yet failed to reach top academic standards, were therefore unable to squeeze in, and were left with no choice but to explore alternative options, such as overseas medical schools with lower requirements, especially those in the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia. Meanwhile, Eastern European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary successively joined the European Union from 2004 onwards. Given that the Physicians Act of Taiwan, R.O.C. states that medical graduates from overseas universities and independent institutions located in the USA, Japan, Europe, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong may participate in the Medical Examinations without first passing the Ministry of Education’s Test of Educational Diploma; and that article 13 of the Physicians Act Enforcement Regulations and article 4-1 of the Physicians Act stipulate that “Europe” refers to member countries of the European Union, education agents saw the perfect opportunity to make profit and launched aggressive advertising campaigns, resulting in a huge surge in the number of students traveling to Poland to study for a degree.
Since June 2006, small numbers of these medical graduates started returning from Poland and applying for the Medical Examination in Taiwan. Meanwhile, students studying in countries outside the 9 main areas rushed to transfer to Polish medical universities before Jan 11, 2006, to join the third or fourth year of the four year system, then returning with certificates from the graduating country, i.e. a member state of the EU, thus avoiding the Test of Educational Diploma and proceeding straight to the Medical Examination. This trend has been growing as more and more Taiwanese students graduated from Polish medical universities between 2006 and 2008, leading to an increasing distrust in their medical abilities among the general public.
In view of this recent increase of public interest in medical quality, the Department of Health, Executive Yuan has started to examine the gap in medical and educational standards between Taiwan, R.O.C and other countries and global areas. With the number of Taiwanese students studying medicine in Easter Europe constantly increasing, the resulting developments will inevitably impact the fostering of medical talents and the integrity of the supply and demand structure within the national medical system. Therefore, it has been decided that the Physicians Act shall be amended in light of these developments, in order to protect the health and safety of Taiwanese citizens and to maintain standards of national medical quality.
This research aims to examine the amendment process of article 4-1 of the Physicians Act. It begins with a literature review, covering periodicals, theses, professional writings, research papers, government publications, and news and press articles related to rulings of the Taipei High Administrative Court and interpretations of the Grand Justice of the Judicial Yuan. A comparative analysis will then be conducted on the above information, followed by in-depth interviews. Conversations with senior figures of the Ministry of Education, Examination Yuan, Ministry of Examination and the Department of Health of the Executive Yuan will shed light on the processes employed by the public sector in developing its policies, and how they are subsequently executed. It will also help build a thorough understanding of the current situation in the implementation of the medical practices’ management system and possible disputes that may ensue. Finally, the researcher will provide concrete suggestions towards the planning and organization of future reforms of the national medical examination system.
Keywords: Overseas qualifications; the nine major global areas; Test of Educational Diploma; principle of legitimate expectations
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