Emergency room overcrowding an ailment local doctor aims to cure

Good for this doctor, and the short-sighted mayor should be impeached or thrown out of office! But I don't think this is a sustainable system. It will be very hard for the doctor to find staff who are willing to work nights, weekends and holidays. I wonder when people became so sensitive and weak that they feel they must run to the hospital every time they have a slight fever, cough or scratch. By all means if it is serious go to the hospital, but it seems to me that people here in Japan rush to the hospital much quicker than other people.

Good man. We need more people like this to step up and use common sense.

This should be common sense, if your only options are to call an ambulance or wating in pain or fear for a day most people will not hesitate in calling an ambulance, even if its not really necessary. An after hours clinic where people can go and have a simple treatment or an evaluation so they can see if their problems are dangerous its a necessity.

The patients get treatment, the doctors in big hospitals can focus on real emergencies, the doctors running the small after-time clinics make an extra buck for their dedication and the government saves money by dedicating only the necessary amount of resources according to their urgency. How anybody can think this is not necessary?

This doctor is absolutely right but, I'm sad to say, this a global problem. It would help if Japan had a proper primary care system, with everyone having at least a dedicated GP, rather than his higgledy piggledy mash up that is used now. Consistency in care is key to good quality and cost effective health care.

All respect to this doctor and I hope his work takes off and inspires others to emulate him. That said....

In 2016, the number of ambulance dispatches in Matsusaka dropped 3 percent from the previous year to 11,782, the first decline in two years. ... The city office attributed the decrease to the launch of Ryosetsu’s clinic, in addition to other factors including the local government’s campaign urging citizens to not call an ambulance unless there is a serious emergency and the popularization of a telephone service providing emergency medical advice.

If the goal of the clinic is to reduce unnecessary ambulance usage, a 3% drop that we can't even be sure is attributable to the clinic is a pretty serious warning sign that something isn't going right. Even though I want the clinic to succeed, if I were mayor I'd have to take a serious second look at how much funding is going to something that isn't achieving its goals.

Of course, that's only an issue so long as the main goal is to reduce ambulance usage. There are other goals that it appears the clinic is serving (like improving access to non-emergency medical care in the community), and those goals have to be measured with different metrics.

Good doctor, but I hope he doesn't burn out.

Sadly this is one of the weak points of the Japanese health system. People with minor ailments only HAVE the emergency rooms available and this guy saw a need and is doing something about it.

If it's worth their while, other doctors will probably follow suit!

Same problems are happening in Ireland and the UK.

He could open a class for common sense and critical thinking at the same time, sure he would be really busy with the amount of people needing such service.

Emergency rooms are jammed in America by the uninsured.

Going to a doctor in Japan seems to be a way for lonely old people to talk to someone.

It would be nice with a GP system, but mostly it would be nice if company management didn't expect all their staff to run to the doc (to infect everyone else) whenever they have a sniffle. Preferably to pick up five different kinds meds, unfortunately including, more often than not, an antibiotic.