TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's Health Minister Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) issued a formal apology on Thursday (March 13) for a controversial report that significantly overstated nursing salaries, further straining already tense relations between healthcare administrators and frontline medical staff. The misleading statistics, published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW, 衛福部), have intensified frustrations among nurses who have long struggled with inadequate compensation.
Minister Chiu expressed genuine surprise at the inflated figures submitted by more than 400 hospitals across Taiwan. During his apology, he reaffirmed the ministry's commitment to addressing the persistent issue of nurse compensation, acknowledging that the salary discrepancies have contributed to a troubling exodus of talent from the profession.
The controversy comes at a particularly sensitive time for Taiwan's healthcare system, where emergency rooms are increasingly overwhelmed due in part to staffing shortages. The minister explained that the original intent behind collecting and publishing the salary data was well-meaning — to provide prospective healthcare workers with reliable reference points for employment decisions. However, he conceded that the presentation of this information created significant misunderstandings about the actual state of nursing compensation.
Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), who brings a physician's perspective to her legislative role, raised pointed questions about the methodology behind the statistics. During a recent legislative inquiry, she suggested that the entire data collection and analysis process might require a comprehensive overhaul to ensure accuracy.
The statistical discrepancies were further highlighted by Legislator Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔), who directly challenged the ministry's reported average nurse salary of NT$70,000. Liao noted striking inconsistencies between the ministry's figures and data from multiple other authoritative sources, including the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (主計處), the Ministry of Labor (勞動部), and private employment agencies that track healthcare compensation.
The salary reporting controversy has opened a wider conversation about transparency in healthcare administration and the ongoing challenges facing Taiwan's nursing workforce, which continues to grapple with issues of fair compensation, workload management, and professional retention.