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Explanation of how the EMS system for mass casualty incidents as initiated by MOHW worked after the Formosa Fun Coast fire in New Taipei City

  • Data Source:Ministry of Health and Welfare
  • Created:2015-06-28
  • Last Updated:2017-01-11

A blaze that is suspected to have been caused by a dust explosion broke out on a stage at the Formosa Fun Coast in New Taipei City around 8:30 p.m. on June 27, leaving numerous visitors with burn injuries. The MOHW immediately initiated a mass casualty management system. One of the features is the case entry function of the emergency medical management system, which enables each hospital to report the injured cases treated in the hospital and helps to monitor the status of the injured as well as the hospitalization and treatment provided in each hospital. The MOHW also promptly called the health departments in Taipei City, New Taipei City, Keelung City, and Taoyuan County, their affiliated hospitals, as well as the burn units and intensive care units of the hospitals, requesting them to completely gear up for the hospitalization and treatment of the injured. 

Medical stations were set up at the site, and a total of eight teams of medical personnel from five hospitals, including Sanchung Branch of New Taipei City Hospital, Cathay General Hospital, Taiwan Adventist Hospital, Taipei Medical University Hospital, and Taipei City Hospital (the latter four are in Taipei City), were dispatched to perform first aid at the site. The MOHW also coordinated private ambulance services of the health departments in Keelung, Taoyuan, and Taipei to support the Public Health Department of New Taipei City Government in transporting the injured. 

Moreover, the MOHW requested Taipei Veterans General Hospital, China Medical University Hospital, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, and other hospitals to provide skin grafts for those in urgent need. The MOHW also asked the Taiwan Organ Registry and Sharing Center, Taiwan Society of Plastic Surgery, and Taiwan Society for Burn Injuries and Wound Healing to jointly help with the delivery of skin grafts from the south to the north, so that the hospitals can choose between artificial skin grafts and donated ones according to the conditions of the patients. Supplies such as human albumin solutions, biological dressings, and materials used for hydrosurgical debridement on burn wounds were also distributed on an emergency basis according to the needs of each hospital. 

Concerned about the blaze, the MOHW Minister visited the injured and encouraged the medical personnel at the Department of Emergency Medicine of National Taiwan University Hospital and Mackay Memorial Hospital in Danshui around midnight. The emergency response staff of the MOHW also rushed into the office to continuously sort out and update the information about the capacity of each hospital and conditions of the injured. 

This incident caused 510 victims to be hospitalized for treatment. Of the victims, 183 were in the intensive care units. With the victim rescue and EMS systems having been proactively initiated, Minister Chiang Been-huang of the MOHW expressed special thanks to the medical personnel at the 38 hospitals in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Keelung, and other cities and counties. It was because of their dedication and hard work throughout the night that all of the injured patients received treatment and medical care in the fastest way possible. The MOHW hereby urges the public to avoid major hospitals in these cities and counties as much as possible if they are not in acute conditions at the moment, so the medical personnel at these hospitals can concentrate their efforts on treating the injured.