Dec 07, 2020 (Japan Times) - More and more medical workers in Japan are warning that care systems in the nation are in peril as daily case counts have topped 2,000 for several days running.
Amid the resurgence, Osaka Prefecture has signaled a “red light” over the local infection situation.
Front-line medical workers are at their limits, with some saying that “beds are occupied all the time” and that there are not enough nurses.
“Even if a bed becomes available after a patient is discharged, the next patient comes in right away. Our hands are full,” a medical worker said.
At Kawakita General Hospital in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward, which mainly deals with coronavirus patients with mild symptoms, 30 beds secured for coronavirus patients have been nearly full.
As such patients need to be in separate rooms to prevent infections, rooms for 76 beds, or about 20% of the total at the hospital, are actually used for such patients.
“If the number of coronavirus patients increases further, we have no choice but to refuse admission,” said Yoichi Sugimura, head of the hospital.
The situation is also serious at core hospitals for severely ill coronavirus patients.
Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital in the capital’s Bunkyo Ward has been struggling to accept new patients, with all of its eight beds secured for severely ill coronavirus patients occupied due to their prolonged hospitalizations.
On top of shortages of hospital beds, it is believed that some hospitals have hesitated to accept such patients in order to avoid in-house infection risks.
As many as 63 people were rejected by nine or more hospitals, even though “some were in an every-second-counts situation,” an ambulance staffer said.
