Ambulances taking longer to reach patients, hospitals

Wednesday 09th September, 06:55 AM JST

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Apsara at 09:43 AM JST - 9th September

Yes, that's what they said in the article is the main cause of the delay...
tkoind2 at 09:46 AM JST - 9th September

Overcapacity is a good issue to think about too. Why are hostpitals so over crowded?

I know a lot of people who have spent a week in hospital for being tired. Others who had relatively minor medial issues kept for days. This does not make sense.

Treat people and send them home for home rest and care. Unless they require observation or they illness required ongoing treatment. People hanging out in hospitals with issues that most international hospitals would treat as outpatient should not be kept there. Send people home who don't need attentive care and make room for patients who do need help.

Also again Parmedics would help. They could triage patients to divert the "not really sick" to other care facilities instead of taking up emergent care time.
Osakadaz at 10:08 AM JST - 9th September

well I had the misfortune to have to ride an ambulance with my wife who has a potential breech birth,and luckily her doctor called ahead and found a hospital willing to accept her in a 'generally' close proximity.The Ambos were very gentle and efficient and I blame the hospitals.The hoken may be cheap,but waiting two hours every time one visits a hospital is not good enough.The doctors are overworked as it is.Back home the local GP system was much more effective and the doctors spent more time really assessing a patient's health.I know there are many clinics around the place,but maybe lots more small practices with 3 or 4 GPs would be much better.There are a million and one skin clinics and it seems that clinics just serve the greed of the individual doctor and not the needs of the community in a lot of cases.
pointofview at 10:55 AM JST - 9th September

This is the result of a lack of care and concern. Proof that we are all just sheep being whipped by the big boys.
USNinJapan2 at 11:01 AM JST - 9th September

First of all it would help if drivers pulled aside out of the way and stopped for ambulances on emergency calls. I don't know if it's required by the law to do so like in the US but it should be if not, especially with the heavier road congestion here. I don't think I've ever seen an ambulance going any faster than the posted speed limit no matter how little traffic there was...
gogogo at 11:39 AM JST - 9th September

I wouldn't worry about the Ambulances I would worry about the hospitals
dr_jones at 12:12 PM JST - 9th September

Maybe they should put two or three more loudspeakers on the ambulance cars so that their mindless blaring will become even more obvious.
Klein2 at 12:14 PM JST - 9th September

I think I will ignore this problem until the very second that I need an ambulance.
Alan at 12:26 PM JST - 9th September

hospitals’ refusal to accept patients has recently become a serious social problem in Japan

I remember this being a "serious social problem" in the early 1980s.
Patrick Smash at 12:44 PM JST - 9th September
Several issues:
1. Hospital admission after hours often requires an ambulance, which is often unnecessary. I once had to take my wife to hospital by ambulance with a cut finger requiring 2 stitches, as no ambulance meant no admission.
2. The hospitals make more money by occupying beds with people who really don't need them, so hospital admissions are double the time in the west. What requires one night in hospital in UK might require one week here.
3. The paramedics are not permitted to function. They need to be properly trained and function the way the American ones do. American pramedics save lives every day that would be lost here in Japan.
4. There are not enough surgeons because there is more money and less stress in giving millions and millions of prescriptions for cold medicines to the elderly. Charge these visits at 100%, and encourage the best doctors to move towards surgery with financial support for the necessary, and better future financial gain.
GMONEY7 at 01:12 PM JST - 9th September

When I lived in Nakano-ku, I called an ambulance after experiencing what turned out to be a kidney stone, and was to the point where I couldnt walk from the pain.

Ambulance took about 15 minutes to reach me and we sat idle for 30 minutes to get accepted to a hospital, which ended up being all the way in Shinjuku (which definitley is not the closest hospital)

Luckly for me it was just a kidney stone and not something more serious, but it is kind of scary thinking about how long it took to get checked out. Might not be a good idea to get in a car accident in Japan or have a heart attack.
fishy at 01:33 PM JST - 9th September

when my husband got really sick at home one evening, i called the ambulance and they arrived within like 5 or 6 minutes.. HOWEVER, they spent almost 15 minutes calling nearby hospitals and waiting for their approval to bring in an emergency patient. When we got to the hospital, we had to wait for 30 minutes before a doctor finally came. My husband had a very high fever, but the nurses there were just telling him "doctor will be here soon, so gambatte!!",, what the heck!!!! I asked them if there's an ice bag or SOMETHING to give my husband who was suffering from the high fever!! They said "oh, if he wants it, we can get it". So.. the problem isn't just the fact it sometimes takes long time for an ambulance to get to the patient, but the overall network system isn't good at all.
stirfry at 01:50 PM JST - 9th September

I wouldn't worry about the Ambulances I would worry about the hospitals

exactly...once you're in an ambulance, you're history, unless you somehow manage to escape
Richard_III at 02:44 PM JST - 9th September

This is slightly off topic to the case of hospitals, but with ambulances if you've been in a traffic accident and even even if you don't need one I heard that you should still get in it cause it helps with insurance payouts or something.

The system seems like it's heavily skewed and imbalanced due to financial incentives here and there.
kirakira25 at 03:38 PM JST - 9th September

@Tkoind2 - but if they actually treated people and then send them home, how would they ever make enough money???!!!

A friend of mine recently was hospitalised for nearly a month for something he would have been treated for as an outpatient in the UK - it was a total scam. That`s why the hospitals are filled to capacity - they are like hotels, with paying guests and they need to keep the occupancy rates up.