Lunar New Year ER visits down as more clinics stay open, UCCs expand

Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) Visits to emergency rooms around Taiwan over the Lunar New Year holiday were down from last year as more clinics stayed open and urgent care centers (UCCs) expanded capacity during the break, Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said Monday.

According to MOHW data, there were 232,397 visits to hospital ERs from Feb. 14, the first day of this year's nine-day holiday, to Feb. 21, the second-to-last day, down 22.5 percent from the 299,824 visits that occurred during the same holiday period in 2025.

The lower number in 2026 may have been because more clinics stayed open and the UCCs expanded capacity during the holiday, helping keep mild cases out of ERs, said Cho Li-ping (卓琍萍), an official with the MOHW's Department of Medical Affairs.

Visits to the ER over the holiday were closely watched after what happened in 2025, when ERs across Taiwan became so overcrowded that the Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine called the situation "unprecedented."

In response to those difficulties, the government put up NT$1.6 billion (US$50.87 million) in funding to encourage medical providers to stay open during this year's holiday, according to the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA).

Some 37 percent of all clinics were open on Lunar New Year's eve on Feb. 16, then fell to 7-9 percent on Feb. 17-18, only to rebound to 12 percent on Feb. 19 and 27 percent on Feb. 20, before peaking at 45 percent on Feb. 21, the NHIA said.

The agency said opening rates from Feb. 17 to Feb. 19 were around double last year's levels, when only around 4 percent of clinics operated over the same period.

For the 13 UCCs across Taiwan, the MOHW had announced before the holiday that they would close only on Feb. 16 and Feb. 21, while operating on the other days of the holiday to provide services in internal medicine, general surgery, pediatrics and orthopedics.

A total of 5,629 visits were made to UCCs during the Feb. 14 to Feb. 22 holiday, according to MOHW data, but did little to close the gap between the two years.

Numbers for clinic visits were not immediately available, so it was unclear whether the added clinic and UCC openings absorbed the additional patients or whether overall doctor visits were simply down this year.

Launched in Taiwan's six major cities in early November 2025, the UCC program normally offers medical services from 8 a.m. to midnight on Sundays and national holidays to divert non-emergency patients and ease pressure on hospital ERs.

Health Minister Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said the Lunar New Year contingency plan will be extended until after the Peace Memorial Day long weekend from Feb. 27 to March 1 to ensure the daily number of patients waiting in ERs stays within an acceptable threshold.