Local hospital operators and pharmaceutical manufacturers have decided to postpone indefinitely their street protest plans due to an imminent change at the top of the Department of Health (DOH), medical sources said Wednesday. The International Research-based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IRPMA) and the Taiwan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (TPMA) had planned to mobilize up to 1,000 of their members to take to the streets Friday in protest against the Bureau of National Health Insurance's (BNHI) decision to cut its payments for pharmaceuticals by NT$10 billion (US$303 million) with effect from Sept.1. 'We have decided to suspend the plan for the time being as the new DOH minister, Yang Chih-liang, will soon assume office, ' said IRPMA Secretary-General Cheng Hsing. According to Cheng, the two professional associations made a decision to stage demonstrations only after outgoing DOH Minister Yeh Ching-chuan refused to meet with representatives of the two groups to discuss issues related to the BNHI's payment for pharmaceutical products. 'It seems that his successor will be more willing to communicate with us on relevant issues, therefore, we will adopt a wait-and-see attitude and will decide later whether or not to go ahead with our protest plans,' said Cheng. She was referring to Yang's remarks a day earlier that he will do his utmost to communicate with local medical service providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers because both groups are patrons of the DOH. Yeh resigned Monday in preparation to seek the ruling Kuomintang's candidacy for the year-end magistrate election in the eastern county of Hualien. Yang, 62, will take over the DOH helm Thursday. He is a widely respected public health educator, promoter and administrator. He has a Ph.D. in public health from the University of Michigan and has served as DOH vice minister and Asia University president. Meanwhile, Hsieh Wu-chi, president of the Taiwan Community Hospitals Association, said his group will also suspend its plan to besiege the BNHI Aug. 12 in protest against a new patient classification system, known as the diagnosis-related group (DRG) system. The new DRG system will classify patients' illnesses into 967 categories and will be phased in over the next six years. Under the new system, patients within each category will be expected to use the same level of hospital resources and the health insurance bureau will pay the hospital a fixed amount in accordance with the applicable rate within each category. The first phase, which will take effect Sept.1, will cover 111 categories, including appendectomy, caesarean section, hemorrhoid removal, hernia repair and myomectomy. Hsieh argued that the new system will benefit large medical centers and deal yet another blow to smaller community hospitals. His view was shared by Wu De-lon, president of the Taiwan Hospitals Association, who argued that the new system could force smaller hospitals to refuse to admit patients suffering from severe diseases. Wu said his association had originally planned to stage a demonstration at the Legislative Yuan Aug. 13 to enlist lawmakers' support for its call to scrap the new system in consideration of patients' rights. 'But we are now having second thoughts as the new health minister will soon take charge and we would not like to embarrass him soon after he assumes office. Our association will call a meeting to decide whether to suspend the protest plan for the time being, ' Wu added. 