E
EdwardATeller
Guest
Here is some reality from Japan. Those of you who prefer fantasy can
skip the reading and commence hitting the bong.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ayBXYNH0bUWc&refer=home
<quote>
Japan Doctors Say New Health Funding Won't End Death-by-Delay
By Kanoko Matsuyama
More Photos/Details
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's plan to spend an extra $1.4 billion on
hospital doctors won't alleviate the shortage of staff causing
treatment delays and fatalities, doctors said.
The 150 billion yen package will help hospital emergency rooms meet
increased demand for medical and surgical services, the health
ministry said in a report on Jan. 30.
Trauma doctor Hisashi Matsumoto said he gets $6 an hour, or less than
the average minimum wage, for a 16-hour night shift. The low pay and
long shifts have left hospitals short-staffed nationwide, resulting in
a case in August when a woman with labor complications lost her baby
after she was refused treatment at 10 hospitals that said no doctors
were available.
``The funding won't help,'' said Kunio Kobayashi, a doctor who headed
the emergency center at Tokyo's Teikyo University Hospital until he
switched to teaching paramedics in 2005. Increases in medical
reimbursements don't reach hospital doctors because the medical
centers are losing money, he said.
In 2006, 667 women in labor were turned away by more than three
hospitals because of a lack of doctors, government records show.
More patients are seeking hospital care as Japan's society ages. Older
patients have greater medical needs to treat heart disease, stroke,
dementia and other chronic conditions, leaving fewer resources for
emergencies such as heart attack and obstructed labor.
The proportion of people aged 65 or over that needed ambulance
services rose to 38 percent of the total in 2006 from 29 percent 10
years earlier in Tokyo, according to government statistics.
``The additional payments to hospitals will benefit management not
doctors,'' said Tohru Aruga, a doctor and vice director of Showa
University Hospital in Tokyo.
Too Full
About 14 percent of emergency centers across Japan lack 24- hour
specialists on duty and were unable to treat some emergency cases,
citing a particular shortage of obstetricians, according to survey by
Asahi newspaper on Feb. 4. Thirteen centers out of the 187 surveyed
didn't have any emergency doctors, the report said.
The Asahi said it contacted all 205 emergency centers in Japan and
received response from 187. One hospital in Hokkaido had to close its
emergency room because all the doctors quit, the newspaper said.
``Something must be done to improve the work environment for hospital
doctors,'' says Matsumoto, 45, one of 13 doctors in the emergency room
at Nippon Medical School's Chiba Hokusoh Hospital, near Tokyo. ``Staff
are exhausted.''
Ambulances
Ambulance officials called 11 Tokyo hospitals to treat a 95-year-old
woman complaining of chest pains last month. Each said it was too full
to accept her, a fire and ambulance department spokesman said. She
later died in another hospital.
``The balance of demand and supply is changing,'' said Aruga at Showa
University Hospital in Tokyo. ``Patient numbers are rising as a result
of the aging society, but the capacity of hospitals remains the same.
That increases the workload for individual hospitals.''
Rejection of patients is sometimes unavoidable, Aruga said in an
interview on Jan. 24. His hospital recently had to decline to accept a
coronary patient because it was already treating four people with
heart conditions and had two others waiting, he said.
The national ambulance service fielded 4.89 million emergency calls in
2006, a 3 percent increase from 2003, according to the internal
affairs ministry.
Death by Delay
``It's taking more time to pick up patients,'' said Keiji Araki, head
of Japan's fire and ambulance department. Still ``public expectation
of saving lives remains high,'' he told a conference for paramedics in
Shizuoka, west of Tokyo, on Jan. 24.
The incident last August involving a 38-year-old woman and the death
of her newborn baby in Nara prefecture, near the city of Kyoto, ``made
us realize again that we need greater collaboration with hospitals,''
Araki said.
Costs deter some women from seeking antenatal care in Japan, where the
public health-care system doesn't fully cover monthly checkups for
pregnant women that cost at least 3,000 yen or deliveries that cost
about 400,000 yen ($3,750). The mother in Nara had no record of
regular checkups, which made it harder to find a hospital willing to
treat her, according to reports by the local government.
Japan's government in December committed to spending about 16.1
billion yen in the year starting April 1 to develop a system to
dispatch doctors on emergencies, and to improve emergency, obstetric
and pediatric services.
More Pay
``We will implement measures that enable hospitals to accept emergency
patients more smoothly,'' Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told parliament
on Jan. 22. He promised more enrolments at medical schools, a better
shift-work system and more pay for hospital doctors. The national
average minimum pay is 673 yen ($6.30) an hour.
Convenience store attendants receive more on an hourly basis than some
doctors working extended shifts in hospitals, said Kobayashi, the
former head of the emergency center at Teikyo University Hospital.
``Doctors feel it's their mission to save lives,'' Kobayashi said.
``Are they getting paid for what they sacrifice? No.''
Trauma surgeon Matsumoto spent eight years removing tumors from cancer
patients before switching career paths.
``I'm doing this job because I want to improve the country's health
system and its ability to deal with emergency medical services and
natural disasters,'' he said.
</quote>
skip the reading and commence hitting the bong.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ayBXYNH0bUWc&refer=home
<quote>
Japan Doctors Say New Health Funding Won't End Death-by-Delay
By Kanoko Matsuyama
More Photos/Details
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's plan to spend an extra $1.4 billion on
hospital doctors won't alleviate the shortage of staff causing
treatment delays and fatalities, doctors said.
The 150 billion yen package will help hospital emergency rooms meet
increased demand for medical and surgical services, the health
ministry said in a report on Jan. 30.
Trauma doctor Hisashi Matsumoto said he gets $6 an hour, or less than
the average minimum wage, for a 16-hour night shift. The low pay and
long shifts have left hospitals short-staffed nationwide, resulting in
a case in August when a woman with labor complications lost her baby
after she was refused treatment at 10 hospitals that said no doctors
were available.
``The funding won't help,'' said Kunio Kobayashi, a doctor who headed
the emergency center at Tokyo's Teikyo University Hospital until he
switched to teaching paramedics in 2005. Increases in medical
reimbursements don't reach hospital doctors because the medical
centers are losing money, he said.
In 2006, 667 women in labor were turned away by more than three
hospitals because of a lack of doctors, government records show.
More patients are seeking hospital care as Japan's society ages. Older
patients have greater medical needs to treat heart disease, stroke,
dementia and other chronic conditions, leaving fewer resources for
emergencies such as heart attack and obstructed labor.
The proportion of people aged 65 or over that needed ambulance
services rose to 38 percent of the total in 2006 from 29 percent 10
years earlier in Tokyo, according to government statistics.
``The additional payments to hospitals will benefit management not
doctors,'' said Tohru Aruga, a doctor and vice director of Showa
University Hospital in Tokyo.
Too Full
About 14 percent of emergency centers across Japan lack 24- hour
specialists on duty and were unable to treat some emergency cases,
citing a particular shortage of obstetricians, according to survey by
Asahi newspaper on Feb. 4. Thirteen centers out of the 187 surveyed
didn't have any emergency doctors, the report said.
The Asahi said it contacted all 205 emergency centers in Japan and
received response from 187. One hospital in Hokkaido had to close its
emergency room because all the doctors quit, the newspaper said.
``Something must be done to improve the work environment for hospital
doctors,'' says Matsumoto, 45, one of 13 doctors in the emergency room
at Nippon Medical School's Chiba Hokusoh Hospital, near Tokyo. ``Staff
are exhausted.''
Ambulances
Ambulance officials called 11 Tokyo hospitals to treat a 95-year-old
woman complaining of chest pains last month. Each said it was too full
to accept her, a fire and ambulance department spokesman said. She
later died in another hospital.
``The balance of demand and supply is changing,'' said Aruga at Showa
University Hospital in Tokyo. ``Patient numbers are rising as a result
of the aging society, but the capacity of hospitals remains the same.
That increases the workload for individual hospitals.''
Rejection of patients is sometimes unavoidable, Aruga said in an
interview on Jan. 24. His hospital recently had to decline to accept a
coronary patient because it was already treating four people with
heart conditions and had two others waiting, he said.
The national ambulance service fielded 4.89 million emergency calls in
2006, a 3 percent increase from 2003, according to the internal
affairs ministry.
Death by Delay
``It's taking more time to pick up patients,'' said Keiji Araki, head
of Japan's fire and ambulance department. Still ``public expectation
of saving lives remains high,'' he told a conference for paramedics in
Shizuoka, west of Tokyo, on Jan. 24.
The incident last August involving a 38-year-old woman and the death
of her newborn baby in Nara prefecture, near the city of Kyoto, ``made
us realize again that we need greater collaboration with hospitals,''
Araki said.
Costs deter some women from seeking antenatal care in Japan, where the
public health-care system doesn't fully cover monthly checkups for
pregnant women that cost at least 3,000 yen or deliveries that cost
about 400,000 yen ($3,750). The mother in Nara had no record of
regular checkups, which made it harder to find a hospital willing to
treat her, according to reports by the local government.
Japan's government in December committed to spending about 16.1
billion yen in the year starting April 1 to develop a system to
dispatch doctors on emergencies, and to improve emergency, obstetric
and pediatric services.
More Pay
``We will implement measures that enable hospitals to accept emergency
patients more smoothly,'' Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told parliament
on Jan. 22. He promised more enrolments at medical schools, a better
shift-work system and more pay for hospital doctors. The national
average minimum pay is 673 yen ($6.30) an hour.
Convenience store attendants receive more on an hourly basis than some
doctors working extended shifts in hospitals, said Kobayashi, the
former head of the emergency center at Teikyo University Hospital.
``Doctors feel it's their mission to save lives,'' Kobayashi said.
``Are they getting paid for what they sacrifice? No.''
Trauma surgeon Matsumoto spent eight years removing tumors from cancer
patients before switching career paths.
``I'm doing this job because I want to improve the country's health
system and its ability to deal with emergency medical services and
natural disasters,'' he said.
</quote>
