Many core perinatal care centers lack full-time doctors

Thursday 30th October, 05:14 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

12 Comments

mikihouse at 07:30 AM JST - 30th October

the Japanese gov't hospitals can't have as much full-time doctors as they wanted because nobody wants to apply for the position of being underpaid and overworked physicians. The salary limit of less than 300,000Y per month for most doctors in Tokyo is ridiculous and its even lower in other prefectures. So why bother?
notimpressed at 09:24 AM JST - 30th October

They really pay doctors that low? Oh man this place is more screwed than I thought if that is the case.
neverknow2 at 09:29 AM JST - 30th October

he salary limit of less than 300,000Y per month for most doctors

Do you have any proof of this?
Youdontknow at 11:15 AM JST - 30th October

'perinatal'??? Jeez JT - talk about using out dated English!
Spidey at 11:47 AM JST - 30th October

300,000Y is enough because when you work 24/7, you don't have any time to spend it.

S
Hoolie at 11:52 AM JST - 30th October

Hmmm... I've seen clinics advertising for doctors on Daijob for as high as 18 million yen annual salary... a far cry from a 300,000 yen per month cap. Perhaps the 300,000 yen cap is a per-patient non-surgical procedure payment cap?
NuckinFutz at 12:25 PM JST - 30th October

Doctors should be paid adequate salaries, and 300,000 is NOT adequate! Of course they should also be required to speak to patients for more than 10 seconds, learn the meaning of "bedside manners", and explain medications in detail.

The standard for hospitals should not be how many doctors they have "on-call" but how many are actually ON DUTY in the hospital at any given time. When you have an emergency situation a hospital should have a lagal obligation to accept a patient and provide care. Any hospital that refuses a patient who later dies or suffers life-long consequences should face stiff finacial penalties or criminal charges for professional neglect.

The Japanese government can do more to encourage young people to pursue careers as doctors but it seems to be lacking the will to change archaic educational systems, working condition laws etc.

Maybe if a high-level politician gets refused by several hospitals things might change ... but I doubt it.
tzvete at 02:06 PM JST - 30th October

I myself have suffered bad attitude in a Japanese hospital,but then I thought it was beacause I am a foreigner. A few months ago a Japanese friend of mine(who is pregnant) was sent off from Iwate to Nagoya(hour and a half by plane?!) for a regular check-up?! They should do something!
outofmydepth at 02:10 PM JST - 30th October

i think you really cant call them "core perinatal centers" if they dont get the job they are supposed to do done!!! it is most surely a disgrace and a black eye for japan and the japanese in the eyes of the world. i wonder if the rest of the world even knows what goes on here in regards to medical care - or the lack thereof.
mikihouse at 04:44 PM JST - 30th October

does it come as a surprise to know how much doctors are being paid? The government has set a limit to how much a doctor can receive in a month in government hospitals and its usually 300,000Y per month minus taxes in Tokyo so doctors work in private hospitals or private clinics (no limit of salary) and most of them work for companies (daily baitos 40,000Y/day while not usually everyday its much better salary than the government has to offer). Even university hospitals under the government has the same salary limit so doctors will usually fill their schedule with speaking engagements like tv shows and radio programs because they get like 50,000Y per appearance. In case you are not aware, the majority of doctors and dentist in Japan receives less than 4M Y per annum then minus taxes. A salaryman gets even better pay.
ptolemy at 12:47 AM JST - 31st October

If they lack full time doctors then how can they be core perinatal care centers? There must be a traslation problem. Oh sorry, maybe not, even those standards are set by politicians sitting in offices because of nepotism and appointment without any medical experience in the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry.
electric2004 at 01:02 PM JST - 31st October

I think the 300000 limit is related to doctors who are still in the apprentice phase.