CLINICS MAY CLOSE ON WEEKENDS UNDER NEW LABOR ACT|例休新制增人力 部分診所假日不看診

As new rules regarding the Labor Standards Act come into effect in next year, people who need to go to see a doctor on weekends, may have no choice but to go to hospitals. According to the Taiwan Medical Association, there will be additional personnel costs for clinics. To avoid such a problem, some clinics will thus no longer stay open on weekends. Starting from 2017, the "one fixed day off, and one flexible rest day" policy will take effect, meaning that the maximum allowable working hours will be 40 hours per week. To avoid additional personnel costs, some clinics have decided to close on Sundays. Therefore, those who have a need to go to see a doctor on weekends, may have no choice but to go to hospital emergency rooms. ==CHAO CHAO-MING, medical practitioner== Now a lot of primary care doctors will calculate the daily cost of running a clinic. If the operating expenses are more than what they earn for a day, they may choose to close their clinics on Sundays. Doctors who work at clinics said that the average working hours is around 9.5 hours per day. According to the new policy, clinic operators will have to pay a 1.5 hour overtime fee for their employees every day to comply with the 8-hour workday. Taking the costs for annual leave into consideration, personnel costs are estimated to increase by 10 to 20 percent in total. ==CHIU TAI-YUAN, Director of Taiwan Medical Association== We hope that we can measure the additional personnel costs. There will be more challenges for us. Having money does not necessarily mean you can successfully hire employees that are willing to work overtime. Taiwan Medical Association said that currently 2700 clinics, or over 20 percent, stay open on Sundays nationwide. After the new policy is implemented for a period of time, the association will invite medical institutions to discuss ways to cope with the problem. TRANSLATED BY：ARIEL HSIEH 身體不舒服，到診所掛號看病很方便，不過原本週日開診的診所就少，受到明年實施一例一休，每週工時上限40小時的影響，有部分診所為了怕增加人事成本，已經打算假日不開診，未來民眾假日生病、恐怕只能跑大醫院掛急診。 ==開業診所醫師 趙昭明== 現在很多的基層醫師 就去算說 假使他的開銷 跟他當日的所得來比的話 要是不敷成本的話 那我們自己很多的基層醫師 他們說他們寧願把禮拜天的診 至少禮拜天的診 他們可能就關掉 開業診所醫師表示，以一般私人診所來看，一天門診量大約是9.5個小時，若以勞基法新制、一天平均工時8小時來看，現在聘雇兩名護理師、兩名藥師，每天就超時工作1.5小時，通通必須支付他們加班費，這還不包含特休假，算一算、人力成本至少增加一到兩成。 ==醫師公會全聯會理事長 邱泰源== 希望能算出成本啦 就是說要增加多少成本 增加多少困難 不是說你有錢就可以請到人 那個人如果不加班 你也是一樣啊 醫師公會全聯會表示，目前全台週日開診共有2700多家診所，約占兩成，明年新制上路後一段時間，會再邀請醫療院所開會，計算出實際人力成本增加多少，再來討論因應措施。 記者 賴淑敏 陳保羅 台北報導