Hospital Admits Errors in Lancet Letter on Taiwan’s Healthcare System


Taichung: China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) admitted on Saturday that a letter published in The Lancet this month by its doctors about Taiwan’s healthcare system being “on the brink of systemic collapse” contained factual errors.



According to Focus Taiwan, the Taichung-based hospital stated that it identified multiple mistakes in a letter authored by two of its doctors that was published in volume 405 of the renowned medical journal. CMUH reported that the doctors were “deeply apologetic” over the erroneous content and have formally requested that The Lancet publish a correction.



CMUH clarified that the letter written by Li Jing-xing and Hsu Shu-bai inaccurately stated that Taiwan’s COVID-19 hospitalization fatality rate was 58.2 percent. The hospital explained that the figure was a misreading of a 2025 study by Chang Gung Memorial Hospital published in Infection and Drug Resistance, which found that 58.2 percent of critically ill COVID-19 patients requiring intubation were infected with the omicron variant, not that 58.2 percent of hospitalized patients had died.



Additionally, CMUH corrected the letter’s erroneous report that Taiwan had 62 nurses per 10,000 people in 2021, clarifying that the actual number was 78 nurses per 10,000 people. The hospital also mentioned that a supporting document meant to illustrate the healthcare system’s interconnectedness was mistakenly replaced with the wrong file.



CMUH acknowledged that the errors caused unnecessary confusion among Taiwan’s medical community, and the authors had compiled a detailed list of mistakes for correction. The hospital emphasized that the government has prioritized addressing healthcare system strain in the post-pandemic era, with the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) holding multiple meetings to coordinate response strategies.



The hospital further stated that Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system has long provided “exceptionally high standards of treatment” and remains a model for other countries. On Saturday, Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan criticized the letter, stating that using incorrect statistics to attack Taiwan’s health system was “deeply unfair” to medical workers.