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  jeancolmar at 12:13 AM JST - 19th December

  This problem discussed here has nothing to do with universal health care, or, as the Americans call it "Socialized Medicine." It has to do with the artificial shortage of doctors in this country, and the greed of private hospitals.

  "Socialized medicine" has been good to a lot of people in this country, including me. The problem is that there just isn't enough of it.

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  Shichiman at 01:10 AM JST - 19th December

  30061015, yes, socialised medicine is great. Whilst working in France a friend of mine contracted mengitis and died. She had been charged 180euros for a misdiagnosis the previous day. Is it morally acceptable that the doctor got his cash bonus?

  As I said, people complain about waiting times but the NHS has fixed me and my family up plenty of times. I'm afraid the line about inadequate treatment requiring multiple visits is bull. If you're going to make such an exagerrated point back it up with evidence.

  Private services are great for cosmetic surgery.

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  sf2k at 02:17 AM JST - 19th December

  back to the issue.... not enough doctors, a hospital system inundated with minor patients that should be in clinics, not emergency wards etc. Isn't this the same as another article I read on JT from Osaka? This is a national problem but nobody wants to talk about solutions.

  Oh I would never compare Japan's healthcare to France or Canada as it's an insurance system they pay for from working. In Canada et al it's in our taxes so we don't see it day to day. I've had two knee operations and all I had to do was show up. I would prefer a NHS though, as dental is not covered here. For dental I would need insurance covered by work, and reminds me more of the city insurance health system of Japan.

  Who cares.

  The issue is doctors. The issue is branching out clincs to free up emergency services, or teaching people what the word emergency means. What type of payment system Japan uses is not the point here, nor would any other system suddenly be the answer.

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  ca1ic0cat at 03:12 AM JST - 19th December

  I agree that Japan isn't socialized medicine but it is amazing that they can't set up a good ER like the rest of the world can. There are plenty of examples of how to run an ER that could be used in Japan. Somehow it's all been ignored.

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  shiuu at 03:40 AM JST - 19th December

  Japan's not socialized medicine after all? Hey, great. That means I can ask for that huge chunk of cash THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT takes out of my paycheck every month back, right?

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  ninpo777 at 07:15 AM JST - 19th December

  I can't believe none of the hospitals would accept a critically injured woman. Could they not see just by looking at her that she was likely to die? I think the hospitals need to rethink the amount of staff they have working and increase it significantly, because I'm quite sure thats not the first time that sort of thing has happened.

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  sf2k at 08:22 AM JST - 19th December

  to truly end the suffering a new hospital would have to be constructed in and around Yamatsuri, that way they can balance the situation. If 6 hospitals are full, you need another. But I'd go with clinics, as I doubt it's really emergencies that are being handled, but clinic stuff. There's no one in charge, so no one is to blame.

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  viannyjerry at 11:08 AM JST - 19th December

  it a trend in Japan nobody can help it!! if the government hospital don't accept them who will?? GOD will accept them

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  AlfGarnett at 12:21 PM JST - 19th December

  That's a bloody disgrace, the poor old soul , RIP. People take the mickey out ov or NHS and welfare state, but let me tell you, people don't get turned away by hospitals and left to die.

  That's the sort of thing you expect from old Bob Mugabe and his mob in Zimbabwe, not the second richest country in the world.

  Strewth, i moan about waiting an hour to see a quack. At least they see me, and don't leave me to croak it.

  In nmost contries this wold be a national scandal, the health minister would resign in disgrace.

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  elbudamexicano at 01:03 PM JST - 19th December

  I feel so sorry for this 79 year old victim! What the hell were these hospitals thinking? I can not wait to hear their excueses when the "big one" hits Tokyo and these understaffed hospitals can't even take care of one old woman! What will they do when we have hundreds of thousands of injured all over Tokyo and the greater Kanto Plain? PATHETIC!!!

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  Scrote at 11:21 AM JST - 20th December

  The government should set up a two-tier system. Hospitals which are not allowed to refuse any emergency patients get extra money and those that are "full" get much, much less and are basically treated as clinics.

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  efftta at 12:42 AM JST - 22nd December

  A friend of mine recently broke his big toe while playing badminton. He was subsequently taken to hospital via ambulance, and admitted. After reseting the break, and applying the cast, the doctor proceeded to tell him he would like for my friend to remain as a patient in the hospital for a further 1.5 months.

  The system in Japan is absolutely flat tack broke, no doubt about it. The hospital makes money based on how many full beds they have. The fuller the hospital, the more money they make, hence why they encourage what should have been a very short stay (I've worked in the personal health industry and know for a fact that he should have been sent home within hours of being treated) to become a ridiculous exercise in money generation.

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  LFRAgain at 02:25 PM JST - 22nd December

  The issue is indeed a shortage of staff. Simply put, there genuinely aren't enough doctors to go around. Furthermore, there doesn’t appear to be any relief on the horizon as young people are not flocking to this supposedly revered profession.

  While I certainly can understand the sentiment and principle behind the belief that doctors should help, no matter what the circumstances, the reality is that doctors are often faced with three choices in Japanese hospitals on a day-to-day basis:

  1) Give excellent attention to a smaller number of patients, helping, most of them adequately

  2) Give the bare minimum of attention to a larger number of patients, helping many of them with the bare minimum of care

  3) Give diluted and divided attention to an overwhelming number of patients, helping only a few of them, resulting in greater mistakes, accidents, and deaths

  Doctors can only spread themselves so thin before everyone starts to suffer. So they have to cut their losses and deal with who they have on hand NOW, not 10 minutes from now.

  If a heart-attack patient currently being treated were left alone to die by a doctor who went to treat another heart attack patient who just rolled into the emergency room, you can be sure people would be raising hell about that as well.

  So even if the doctors at this hospital were to accept this woman, she either would have likely sat in the waiting room to die 90 minutes later, or received treatment while another patient who was put aside died. How do you choose who lives and who dies? You don’t. You take patients on a first come, first serve basis.

  There have been numerous documentaries on the subject of late, and it all seems to boil down to one thing: People don’t want to become doctors in Japan because the job is simply too demanding and hard on a person, both physically and emotionally. The social and cultural expectation of doctors to make no mistakes and to be, in effect, “God” when it comes to the treatment of loved ones only compounds a problem acerbated by a severe lack of doctors overall. So, how can one save lives when all the factors that increase the likelihood of success are gradually disappearing? There is even a shortage of nurses right now.

  The amount of anger and disgust on this thread alone perfectly illustrates why so few people in Japan want to become doctors. The demands made on them are so incredibly high, and the pressure to help anyone and everyone, regardless of circumstances or conditions makes the allure of “saving lives” a whole lot less appealing. Salaries aren’t particularly high, and you’re essentially on-call 24/7. You’re under constant scrutiny every day, and public expectations are unattainably high. Sure, doctors in Japan are respected, but what good is respect when you yourself are on a sickbed from sheer exhaustion? A doctor is no good to anyone when he or she is overworked and poorly rested.

  For those who think that this has to do with Japan’s health care system being publicly funded, you couldn’t be more mistaken. By allowing the proliferation of the exorbitant salaries that are often associated with doctors in the West, the US in particular, you then create essentially the same problem of uneven treatment, with a minority of people who can afford expensive doctors getting the best treatment, while the majority of people with limited resources have to make due with lower quality treatment from a shrinking pool of doctors who choose to do the job out of a concern for public welfare rather than personal financial enrichment.

  Japan has it right: Medicine should never be an avenue for economic gain or profit, which is why it is illegal for hospitals that accept nationalized insurance monies to make profits. But what needs to change is the conditions in which doctors and other medical staff are required to work.

  But it’s a vicious circle: The fewer people who choose a medical profession, the greater the pressure on existing doctors to do their job. The greater the pressure on existing doctors, the fewer the number of people who want to become one. How do you fix that?

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  motytrah at 07:22 AM JST - 23rd December

  Do you guys even know what you pay for?

  Japan is highly regulated with most of insurance being private and almost all the hospitals and doctors private as well. The US has more gov't insurance and medical care than Japan (and that's not much to start with.)

  Average family pays under $300 per month, has a 30% co-pay with an cap out of pocket expense (depending on total annual income).

  Every two years the ministry of health sets the prices for health care.

  Problem is, they are too good at keeping down the costs that docs can't stay in business.

  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/

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  Rickyrab at 05:14 PM JST - 24th December

  In America, she would've died after waiting for several hours in 1 hospital's emergency room. That's the difference between your culture and mine: yours refuses the people while ours makes them wait too long. The result is, unfortunately, the same. The way out of it is to fund the education and hire of more doctors and nurses.

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