Japan might boast universal health cover and some of the world's best medical technology, but an acute shortage of doctors is leaving some hospitals unable to treat even car crash victims.
Grueling working conditions are discouraging people from entering the medical profession in a country where the population is rapidly ageing, foreign doctors are barred and a swelling public debt caps doctors' salaries.
The strains are even being felt at the Hyogo Brain and Heart Center in the western city of Himeji, one of Japan's best-known neurology and cardiology hospitals.
PHOTO: AFP
"We toil like workhorses," said Teishi Kajiya, the hospital's vice director and a cardiologist, taking some time for an interview before heading to the operation room.
"It's become the norm for doctors to work 36 hours straight, which is emotionally and physically exhausting. We never know when one of us might collapse," he said, looking weary despite his tidy coat.
"If this routine continues, doctors' abilities during surgery will drop and could increase the likelihood of medical errors," he said.
He said his hospital has turned down at least 100 patients in each of the past two years, adding that he was unaware of what happened to those who were rejected.
"The reality is that we've been forced to reduce emergency treatment to a portion of our patients since there are too few doctors. It simply can't be helped," Kajiya said.
The hospital, which has a total of 60 medical staff including doctors and resident students, is able to ensure only a bare minimum of three doctors on duty at all times for emergency patients, he said.
The situation is more dire for other hospitals. A recent poll by the Mainichi Shimbun showed that nearly 60 percent of non-emergency hospitals had only one doctor on duty after hours.
By medical standards, at least three doctors are required to attend to a single emergency patient at any one time.
The human toll is already being seen across Japan.
Osaka, Japan's second city, last year reported 3,800 cases in which ambulances had to call multiple hospitals to ensure treatment.
In one case, an 89-year-old women stricken with vomiting and diarrhea, died of a heart attack after her local fire department spent two hours contacting 30 medical facilities -- all of which refused to accept her, citing insufficient beds, shortage of on-duty doctors or because she had not sought previous medical treatment.
Doctors say they are also suffering as they come under intense emotional and physical stress, prompting some to leave the medical profession or resulting in death because of overwork or even suicide.
"Now students prefer professions like ophtalmology since all the wages are the same," said Seizan Tanabe, chief officer for emergency medical care at the health ministry.
The risk of being hauled to court by patients for malpractice is another reason why doctors are seeking to go into less taxing fields than surgery, officials said.
"Students now think more about themselves," said Yasuhiro Yamamoto, chairman of the department of emergency and critical care medicine at Nippon Medical School.
"For a senior doctor like myself, the priority isn't money but the patient's recovery. For me, it is a holy job. Now it's a money job," he said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS