65-year-old man dies after being rejected by 7 hospitals

Friday 17th April, 05:33 AM JST

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sharky1 at 09:03 PM JST - 17th April

Don't think the delay was the cause of death, but it certainly was a contributing factor. It seems that the value of human life has really taken a back seat in Japan.
harbor at 10:24 PM JST - 17th April

god bless you ,bad luck man
knews at 10:45 PM JST - 17th April

The system has its problems but do hospitals have a limitless supply of doctors and beds at all times? I doubt it, especially in rural areas like this case. Of course it's unacceptable but what is the solution?
gogogo at 11:02 PM JST - 17th April

Why is the PM dancing with the IOC and not handling real issues like this?
shanabelle at 12:13 AM JST - 18th April

I live in southern Kyushu and sad to say, (as I have been told by a resident pharmicist friend of mine from a large hospital in this area) the reason these hospitals turn away DOA or seemingly un-saveable patients is that they don't wish to ruin their stats. I am not sure if the hypocratic oath for doctors is an ideology strongly taught here...but I do believe that the hospital system has been overly privatised, and overly business-ized for that matter. Saving lives is the upmost priority! Call it socialiazm or what you will , but hospitals should be there for public health, saving lives and NOT simply profit making entities! Japan, do not go down that nasty dog-eat- dog road that the US health 'system' has become.
Den Den at 01:29 AM JST - 18th April

A big problem is that most Japanese hospitals are staffed Mon-Fri, 9-5pm. After this time, the hospitals usually are required to have a "doctor" present for emergencies. Unfortunately, the doctor/s who gets the shortest straw and have to work for 24 hours...are usually not general practitioners. They may be foot doctors, or skin doctors, or some specialized field that has no possibility to treat emergency cases. So...most hospitals can't accept urgent cases and the ambulance must phone around to find a suitable hospital.
ca1ic0cat at 01:58 AM JST - 18th April

Here we go again. This is so sad but how to end the problem seems to be beyond either the government or the hospitals. And if they can't who can?
motytrah at 02:34 AM JST - 18th April

I don't know how many times I have to say it. Japan is not a socialized medicine state. There is a higher percentage of private insurance and private hospitals in Japan than there is in the US. What Japan does have is strict price controls. Those prices need a modest adjustment. As well as reforming emergency medicine in Japan.

As far as the Man's death, yes, every minute he's not being treated is another minute his organs are dying inside his body. Tokyo is a huge city with a vast number of small clinics and hospitals. We don't have the details of the case, but most likely they called the 8 nearest hospitals which, as stated, didn't have bed space or staff.
MapleG at 03:24 AM JST - 18th April

Not much point for tourists to Japan paying for additional insurance to cover them in case of illness or accident. They won't get treated anyway.

Looks like their best chance for quick treatment is just to jump on a plane home.
Freespeech at 03:49 AM JST - 18th April

If he had already collapsed from his bout of angina pectoris, I am sad to say that his chances of survival were already very limited.

But this is no excuse, and as someone wrote "every minute counts" ; I would add "there is always some hope and something useful that must be tried".

What a scandal and a national shame !

This is written by a sufferer of angina pectoris who sometimes travels to Miyazaki... Lovely perspective !
toguro at 04:39 AM JST - 18th April

Plese tell me that this is a joke. This is totally unacceptable, and the fact that this happens as often as it does, and the government has done nothing to rectify the problem makes it criminal at best.
jeancolmar at 05:22 AM JST - 18th April

Well, "socialized medicine" is a misnomer; in fact it is an American pejorative expression that is used against universal health care. I like to the expression in the positive sense to get at the people who whine about "socialized medicine" whenever an outrage like this happens.

I have been saved several times by the public health system here in Japan. I'll spare you the details. I'll only say it was efficient, effective and did not send me into the poor house.

Times have changed. Starting under Koizumi we began to pay more for less. The refusal of hospitals to take emergency patients may be part of a larger problem of having not enough doctors and medical staff in our hospitals.
sangetsu at 04:29 PM JST - 18th April

>

I don't know how many times I have to say it. Japan is not a socialized medicine state. There is a higher percentage of private insurance and private hospitals in Japan than there is in the US. What Japan does have is strict price controls. Those prices need a modest adjustment. As well as reforming emergency medicine in Japan.

As far as the Man's death, yes, every minute he's not being treated is another minute his organs are dying inside his body. Tokyo is a huge city with a vast number of small clinics and hospitals. We don't have the details of the case, but most likely they called the 8 nearest hospitals which, as stated, didn't have bed space or staff.

The problem is that staff and services are rationed. Doctors are only permitted to serve a limited number of patients, or perform a limited number of procedures over a period of time. The problem with this is that most accidents and injuries don't seem willing to wait until there is a doctor available before they occur.

A acquaintance of mine here in Japan was recently diagnosed with an advanced case of cancer. Unfortunately for her, there was a 6 week wait for an opening for the required surgery. 4 weeks later it was found that the tumors were spreading very quickly, so she was admitted to the hospital immediately and put on standby for surgery. As it was, she waited another week in hospital before finally receiving the surgery.

Say what you like about American health care, but the victim in this story would have received treatment at the nearest hospital, regardless of the hour, staff, or number of beds.

As for my acquaintance, she is still in treatment, but the odds over her recovery are now lower than previously expected. Had she been in America at the time of her diagnoses (regardless of her citizenship or ability to pay) she would have received treatment within days, if not hours.
elbudamexicano at 10:12 PM JST - 19th April

Blah, blah, blah! Now I just can't wait to see what will happen here in Japan when the big one hits ( a huge earthquake) if these idiots can't even take care of 1 65 year old, when all of the buildings in Shinjuku,Shibuya,Ikebukuro etc..fall down and smach everything to bits, and the few abulances that are not crushed, trying to manuver around all of this heavy debris, to hospitals that may also have collapsed??? Not a very pretty picture. For shame Japan!
kirakira25 at 08:31 AM JST - 23rd April

Why are people blaming this on "nationalised health care"? The UK system is nationalised and (whilst it has many issues) no emergency is ever refused admission, even if the patient in question is not a British national and not entitled to free healthcare, they will be stabilised.

This is nothing to do with a nationalised system, it is to do with a government who doesn`t give a %$&#, a bunch of paramedics who are as qualified to treat medical emergencies as, erm, I am, and a culture where doctors are untouchable.