TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — About 2,000 people turned out on Taipei’s Zhongshan South Road on Sunday (Nov.24) to protest the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s (MHOW) rural health care program.

The three-year MHOW program is meant to assist rural areas with little access to dental care by allowing those with foreign academic qualifications to receive dental training and potentially provide dental services in Taiwan. The MHOW allocated NT$2.4 billion (US$74 million) to bolster such services, recruiting and deploying more dental professionals, per SETN.

According to the organization Taiwan Dentists, this program will allow internships for individuals with foreign academic qualifications who have not completed the dental licensing process in Taiwan. The group claimed the program would undercut the professionalism of licensed dentists in Taiwan. 

Protestors demanded the MHOW close the “back door” for unlicensed dentists in rural areas. They called upon the legislature to amend the Physicians Act to cap the number of medical and dental internships for those with foreign academic qualifications.

DPP Legislator Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) and KMT legislators Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) and Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) lent their support to the dental students and teachers attending the protest.

Su Yi-fong (蘇一峰), a thoracic surgeon, said the government achieved consensus on academic qualification certification in 2017 but had yet to take action. Su called upon the MHOW to clarify its position on foreign academic qualifications and internships.

Before the protest, an online petition had advocated for the exclusion of unlicensed dental students and graduates who have only passed the first stage of the national examination from the program. The petition called for only qualified dentists in Taiwan to qualify for the program to improve dental services in rural areas.