Japan to penalize hospitals not accepting infectious disease patients

Right... notice there's no mention of what the penalties would be? Probably ¥1000 yen per patient not taken. What they should do is: first time, stop all subsidies to the hospital in question for one year. Second time: revoke medical licenses of all employed there who were part of the refusal, as well as any permission for the place to operate, and close it down. There is NO excuse for a place that declares itself a medical institution for helping people to refuse any and all help.

But then the mystery is "which medical institutes have (are going to) signed the agreement with prefectural governments"?

It cannot be disclosed because of violation of blah..blah...blah..

Not even the confused ambulance drivers may not be informed to solve this puzzle...keep trying your luck calling all the hospitals

...and who are all these people that are entering Japan with suspected infections who failed to report their health conditions when in isolation? How many of them are there and how much did they contribute to the pandemic in this country? Probably next to zero I'd imagine and just more xenophobic nonsense from government trying to blame it all on foreigners to satisfy their elderly voters.

Bit late! They’ve been talking about these penalties all through Covid. Better late than never.

Two and a half years late.

Remains to be seen how this will actually be handled...until then another nice-sounding LDP promise to secure the next election.

I just do not see how a hospital can refuse a person with an emergent medical need - especially those who could transmit an illness if left untreated.

(With apologies to those who might have heard it before) I am an occasional sufferer of kidney stones and while not life-threatening, the pain is beyond description when it's bad. On multiple occasions, I have had emergency rooms either try not to take me, or get irritated because I showed up in the middle of the night (it always seems to come in the night) without calling ahead.

I do so on purpose because I don't want to hear "We don't have a specialist. We cannot take you."

Without going into detail, it's basic care. I need pain management. Put in an IV and open it up full blast. Dump in some drugs. I don't need a urologist. Any intern can do it and that is who usually does.

My point being, I am not at risk of dying (I just wish that I would so that it will stop hurting.) but I have trouble accessing emergent care. And I am not even at risk of infecting others as this article focuses on.

Say what you will about problems with American health care (and you are probably correct), but short of a mass-casualty or a natural disaster, I cannot imagine a hospital turning someone with real need away.

I take the criticism of those that say this is way late. I agree with you all. But certainly it is a step in the right direction.

Redstorm,it definitely was not in the US,their is a lots of travel medical tourism in Latin America,you monitoring the storm

Penalties ? Should fit the patient outcomes…. Refused admission and died ? Murder charges against the persons and medical institutions involved …. It most civilized countries, that’s precisely what would happen.!.

they will lose their special designations and will not be eligible for preferential remuneration for medical services.

Only that? What about jail time for the hospital owner or 院長 and revocation of medical licenses of all the staff on premises.

Like that is going to work. The pandemic has highlighted the fact that Japans health care system is not fit for purpose. However the radical reform it needs is simply not going to happen without large scale public pressure on the politico’s in receipt of “contributions” from the medical industry, and given the almost total lack of activism in the Japanese population that will never happen.

Finally the government is taking some action

ASHLEY SHIBA: your figures are wrong. 入院中や療養中などの人の数（全国）9月1日時点 1683417人 and

日本国内の重症者数 9月1日時点 555人. so, a daily death of 250-330 a day is perfectly reasonable.

""If they sign agreements with prefectural governments on securing beds for patients with infectious diseases but fail to abide by them, they will lose their special designations and will not be eligible for preferential remuneration for medical services.""

Yes Sir, it is every citizens right to receive the proper medical care when needed, hospital and doctors should NOT have the right to refuse or reject any acceptance nor treatment of any citizen in need of medical care, IT IS an obligation and NOT a choice.

I thought Japan has world class health care, I’m surprised that hospitals would turn coronavirus patients away. It would never happen down here. Our public hospital system may not be perfect but it doesn’t discriminate.

Taking a bureaucratic approach to a medical issue never works. A change in Covid reporting rules will do nothing to impact the pandemic trajectory. Running in quicksand...

Actually it sounds perfect

So the Ministry of Health can badger you via an invasive MySOS app that you are required to install and then penalize you for not complying. Government mandated smartphone apps. I hope you covid maximalists are happy. This comment will be deleted as it is not in line with the health tyranny narrative.

"What's the problem? It's just an app. TikTok tracks your movements and data. So why not let the government literally mandate that you install a physical real time tracking device and respond to their pings? If we just comply, then everything will go back to normal. Two weeks to flatten the curve."

The Japanese healthcare system is privatized and diffused into many small and mid-sized hospitals and clinics. Such turns out to be vulnerable to the covid.

The new legislation aims to make them semi-public and ready to respond swiftly and effectively to nationwide health crises. Details remain debatable yet, but it's a valid move.

Hospitals should not be able to refuse patients unless they are at capacity. Healthcare is a human right. Do Japanese doctors not abide by the Hippocratic Oath because there have been so many articles about hospitals and clinics in Japan rejecting patients due to this or that. It's highly unethical.

These guys should start a comedy club! I mean WTH??? The pandemic is over… people have died as a result of hospitals being absolutely useless in Japan by turning people away and now that the pandemic is over they are going to threaten to do something about hospitals picking who they are willing to treat??

couldn’t write a better black comedy script!

the LDP cronies and the hospital owners who have turned the sick away to let them die should be sent to a desert island somewhere with a very small bag of rice and left to do the same! Only now they realise all hospitals should have been open to the sick???

Why stop at "penalize hospitals not accepting infectious disease patients"?

Why not make a law that says hospitals WILL be penalized for NOT ACCEPTING ANYONE who is in need of medical attention, no matter the reason! Could start by cutting off of all government subsidies for first infraction. Then lets see how many ambulance services get rejected by hospitals after that law gets passed!

If a clinic or hospital is not equipped to handle infectious diseases they shouldn't admit patients with infectious diseases, else they will endanger themselves and their patients

Why not make a law that says hospitals WILL be penalized for NOT ACCEPTING ANYONE who is in need of medical attention, no matter the reason! 

Is there any place on earth where they do anything remotely like that?

"The prefectures of Miyagi, Ibaraki, Tottori and Saga among Japan's 47 prefectures changed daily coronavirus reporting rules on Friday to focus only on cases involving the elderly and others at risk of developing severe symptoms in a bid to lessen the burden on medical institutions."

"...to lessen the public's awareness of just how widely it's spreading in Japan" would be a more accurate explanation.

Why not make a law that says hospitals WILL be penalized for NOT ACCEPTING ANYONE who is in need of medical attention, no matter the reason! 

You're right.

That's the standard procedure in the civilized world.

Is difficult to believe that Japan is not doing it.

About time japan taking some action seriously as they smoke n joke around with Corona. Hopefully the table turns sooner for the better and people are getting the treatment the need rather than coward doctors in fear of virus sending you home over a fever in the name of pandemic.

Why not make a law that says hospitals WILL be penalized for NOT ACCEPTING ANYONE who is in need of medical attention, no matter the reason! 

Is there any place on earth where they do anything remotely like that?

Canada. Health care for all.

We should also penalize the government for not reporting numbers correctly

It sounds like another toothless ruling in Japan! More evidence of J-gov fudging the infection numbers.

What about all the times hospital refused patients for other medical issues or for simply being a foreigner?

Is that still OK?

 I cannot imagine a hospital turning someone with real need away.

I can. In Japan, 80% of the hospitals are private-sector. They are more interested in profits (from our pockets and our insurance-based reimbursements and government subsidies) than they are in care.

Japan doesn't have much of a public healthcare system. It's mostly a private system funded by the public, and it needs to change drastically.

The government will also set penalties for people entering Japan with suspected infections who fail to report their health conditions when in isolation and establish an agency to act as a command center for responding to infectious diseases in fiscal 2023, it said.

Ensure those penalties apply to Japanese entering with infections.

Canada. Health care for all.

So I can go there and get health care for free.

That's great.

But they'll be taking a hige risk if I have covid or a worse infectious disease and I happen to come to a heart or cancer hospital , or maybe for the elderly.

Still great though

Why not make a law that says hospitals WILL be penalized for NOT ACCEPTING ANYONE who is in need of medical attention, no matter the reason! 

You're right.

That's the standard procedure in the civilized world.

standard procedure is turn down people if they can't pay for it.

even for countries with free healthcare like the UK you're probably be turned away if you're not in the appropriate hospital and refered to the right one unless it's an emergency