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  timorborder at 10:39 AM JST - 17th December

  The money factor. Because of the minimal cost of an ambulance ride (in many areas free), a certain part of the population uses ambulances as a taxi service. This should stop.

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  Nippon5 at 10:43 AM JST - 17th December

  Sangetsu.

  Strange Ive never waited more then 20 minutes at a hospital in the States, and when I was rushed to the hospital I didnt have to wait at all. Now of course Ive had times here in Japan I have been in quick, but I also have had to wait hours to see a doctor.

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  Cos at 12:37 PM JST - 17th December

  That's always the same problem : Have enough doctors and nurses in the country. So a part of them will go be able to go patients' house or at least answer the phone for consulting, at any hour, in case the baby or a the grand-ma has "a cold or maybe worse but you cannot tell for sure". That works like that in my country. People are not able to say if it's emergency or not. Once, a student fainted in the entrance hall of my school. I had no idea if she was dying, falling into diabetic coma, or if she had just not eaten her breakfast (that was the case). That's the job of the doctor to tell, if he doesn't come to them, people will call ambulances. Then, I don't see the problem with ambulances doing the medical taxi service in their empty hours. Many vehicles (+staff) are needed in case of big accident/earthquake whatever, and on most days, only 20% of them will be active for emergency. There is no reason to make the others wait on a parking lot rather than transport non-emergency the patients with mobility problems.

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  ImYcare at 02:14 PM JST - 17th December

  Describe "not in need of urgent treatment" ? Who will decide ? People don't always know what is life threatening and what isn't, pain is pain. Look at those guys using foot massager for their neck. How do you expect the same people to know the difference between someone having a heart attack and someone asleep ?

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  ptolemy at 03:55 PM JST - 17th December

  For ambulances, what every other nation does: Fine them for making a false emergency call, misuse of emergency services, and charge then all expenses for the ambulance trip. Hospital outpatient services, not alot to do about that, in the States the elderly do the same thing as here, and the homeless in the States use them as an excuse to be off the street.

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  shackleberry at 07:02 PM JST - 17th December

  Hit `em where it hurts: in the wallet! A good solid fine of about 50,000 yen may make them think (I imagine the majority of them are boozed up to the gills)

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  kavikahi at 03:56 AM JST - 18th December

  Education

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  Disillusioned at 10:38 AM JST - 18th December

  I'm not sure if I understand this question nor the point of it. In Australia ambulances have been nick named 'geriatric taxis', but what is the problem with that? It is a service that should be used. Gawd knows, we pay huge amounts of national health insurance here in Japan, which covers ambulance travel, so why not use it? When my wife was due to drop our second bundle of joy she was concerned about how she would get to the hospital if I was on the other side of town when the time came. I told her to call an ambulance, but she told me, "it was not normal to do so." Why? That's what the service is for. Whether it is a medical emergency or a just a non-life threatening injury everybody has the right to use the ambulance service.

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  GW at 11:31 AM JST - 18th December

  disillusioned

  its pretty simple if people use their heads but too many dont, let me sum it up this way for you.

  When you or yr wife are dieing of a heart attack & you call for a ambulance do you want them to already be picking up yr next door neighbour who cut the tip of her finger in the kitchen?? Nuff said.

  Way too much of the latter happening & people are dieing because of it. And then there is the problem of course of having a hospital admit people to add to our worries

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  katiemian at 11:48 AM JST - 18th December

  Some people wants to be charge free all the time. They're almost stingy person who are always using an ambulance as a taxi or free service rather than using their own car or using a taxi for their own expence.I experienced it with my dishonor husband . In my absence,our daughter hit her head in the wood,he was at home at that time,anxiously panic that our daughter was crack crying at that time.He doesn't really know what to do but called an ambulance. He'd done it a lot of times calling an ambulance even in a slight bruise of our child then all our neigbor mob in our house and thought it was terrible. For me I would aggree he should be learned a penalty of overcharge payment. Because using ambulance as a service or taxi is not normal unless it's terrebly ill.What's the use of Jido Teate or child support from National Government if my husband is not using it for the sake of our child.But rather collect it for his account? He didn't even transfer it to our daughter's account.Or even give me allowance.He could even ask payment if he buy me something.Extremely stingy person.

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  ThomasJ at 12:38 PM JST - 18th December

  By providing more professional telephone and computer responses 24/7 to those with symptoms necessitating attention via telephone management. It would seem to be cost effective. No social policy is 100% effective, and there would need to be an adjustment period, but health providers could be required to serve in such capacities as part of their license obligations. Sorry to be so wordy.

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  Nessie at 01:22 PM JST - 18th December

  Make frivolous callers pull rickshaw taxis...for other frivolous callers.

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  VoXman at 02:51 PM JST - 18th December

  Make them pay a fine for non emergencies as determined by the Doctor..

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  Azrael at 12:40 AM JST - 19th December

  ptolemy at 03:55 PM JST - 17th December: For ambulances, what every other nation does: Fine them for making a false emergency call, misuse of emergency services, and charge then all expenses for the ambulance trip.

  I agree with the above. It's actually a very good idea. If it's not an emergency (determined by a physician, as Voxman suggested), FINE them good. More than 10,000yen would be appropriate; any less than 10,000yen would not work. 10,000yen should be the basic fine, and other fines could apply on top, depending on how puerile the call was - maybe the person had a valid reason to be scared despite it wasn't an emergency, they should either take no fine or the basic fine. After a year the people would -start- getting the message. The money from the fines should go to a fund for emergency room and ambulances equipment, repairs and updates.

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  rurika at 11:20 AM JST - 19th December

  I was walking home on a bitterly cold night when I came across a man collapsed on the road. His breath smelled of alcohol but for all I knew he could have been in a diabetic coma. I called an ambulance and they told me I did the right thing calling them. I didn't know what else to do as I couldn't leave him freezing to death. Maybe he was just drunk and that ambulance could have been put to better use - I'm not a doctor and I wasn't qualified to make that judgement.

  It's not always easy to make the right decision. Symptoms of mild illnesses in babies can look very dramatic and frightening to new parents, many people panick at the sight of blood, etc... I agree malicious callers should be fined but could you fine people just because they don't know any better? Maybe the answer lies with the staff answering calls, with better training they could ask questions that would weed out the non-emergency cases?

  As for hospital outpatient services, I would think the majority of people use them because there is no alternative available to them?

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