Tokyo yet to meet goal of securing 7,000 beds for COVID patients

The metropolitan government made the first such request together with the health ministry on Aug. 23

As if the concept of an outbreak wave was utterly unheard of and was catching them off guard until ONLY A WEEK AGO.

Shouldn't they have prepared for this prior to the Olympics?

Or last spring?

Or last winter?

Or at any point in 2020?

Probably need a little more time as they have to fax the hospitals, plan meetings with the hospital chiefs and then consider, plan and urge which all takes time I guess.

Seriousiy, what a joke!!!!

It’s an easy fix. Force all private hospitals to open an entire floor to Covid patients and help equip them.

Asahi said one Haneda and one at Narita, this article implies two Mu cases at Narita, it's pretty simple but the news can't get it straight. And how is the contact tracing coming along if any? Delta started this way too...

Temporary hospitals is a good idea that every other country has been doing for the past one year and eight months now. Japan might want to have a thought.

Meanwhile, Japan for the first time confirmed two cases of the new Mu variant of the coronavirus, the health ministry said Wednesday. Both of the two women infected with the variant first detected in Columbia were asymptomatic.

already??

I am not sure if the government of Japan is doing this! But other countries are paying up to 500,000 jpy for each COVID patient a hospital accepts which I think is reasonable and it is working, in fact many hospitals are applying to accept COVID patients.

I doubt the J gov is capable of thinking that far out of the box

I am not sure if the government of Japan is doing this! But other countries are paying up to 500,000 jpy for each COVID patient a hospital accepts which I think is reasonable and it is working, in fact many hospitals are applying to accept COVID patients.

The capital has newly added 150 beds since asking Tokyo hospitals to secure beds and accept as many COVID-19 patients as possible in late August, bringing the total capacity to 6,117 beds.

Where those capacity come from? People who will have non-covid emergency what will happen to them?

Same with testing - 97,000 per day capacity, barely 10% of that is used each day.

I don't know,....could've procured at least 500,000 beds with the money blown on the Olympics.

Over the last few days I have heard and read arguments like "Where are we going to get the capacity from? And what about the people who will need non-covid emergency?"

Well, that's exactly the problem - it's not about where it will be taken or released (although that could be a temporary solution, just as other countries with worse outcomes have done, e.g. moving vacant antenatal care beds or other vacant beds and leaving spare capacity for emergencies in those sections), but it's about why the government hasn't responded in advance. It has been more than a year and a half. Semi-private hospitals also had more than a year and a half to do it. And suddenly everyone is pretending it came out of the blue and unexpected.

We have the JSDF, it has the capacity, the resources, the personnel. That's what we have JSDF for (note what the acronym stands for and what it implies). No one is doing anything now and then we read of cases where a newborn baby died because the mother would not be admitted anywhere on the grounds that she had coronavirus. Hospitals and doctors are supposed to be there to treat, not to refuse and underfund.

I am not sure if the government of Japan is doing this! But other countries are paying up to 500,000 jpy for each COVID patient a hospital accepts which I think is reasonable and it is working, in fact many hospitals are applying to accept COVID patients.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210828/p2a/00m/0bu/004000c

Japan's core problem is not substantial shortage but improper re-distribution of healthcare resources. There are red-tapes or excessive regulations favoring vested interests at the expense of much wider public interest under crisis.

Some hospitals remain hesitant or uncooperative despite their intake of state corona subsidy. Among them are (publicly funded) hospital group for which Shigeru Omi, head of the government expert committee for corona response, is a board member. That's breach of public trust, no?

コロナ病床30～50％に空き、尾身茂氏が理事長の公的病院　132億円の補助金「ぼったくり」

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/b7d53a203635ef158d9d8c027941d174efa28d19

Tokyo keeps requesting shutdown or cut business hours in "risky" industries while they shy away from doing so on hospitals. Let's be fair, share burdens.

Many private hospitals in Japan have only one floor or at most two to start with, and a single doctor.

The beds, equipment, etc., are only part of the problem; you also need the qualified staff. One MD, two nurses and a receptionist cannot handle a multitude of covid patients. Accepting even one would mean refusing entry and treatment to all non-covid patients.

The vast majority of Japanese covid patients or those testing positive are not serious nor symptomatic. They only need quarantine places or ordinary check-ups for self-recovery. Hospitals don't need special skills, qualifications or equipment.

The current problem is that serious and worsening covid patients still have difficulty in getting access to a limited number of designated hospitals whose beds and other resources are occupied mostly by non-serious patients.

I wonder why hospitals don't want to admit covid patients, this is an old news of a Osaka hospital getting record profits due to covid:

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210828/p2a/00m/0bu/004000c

7000?

Just make some new hospitals or take existing infrastructures and use them to their fullest!

where do they even get these numbers from?

It’s an easy fix. Force all private hospitals to open an entire floor to Covid patients and help equip them.

Many private hospitals in Japan have only one floor or at most two to start with, and a single doctor.

The beds, equipment, etc., are only part of the problem; you also need the qualified staff. One MD, two nurses and a receptionist cannot handle a multitude of covid patients. Accepting even one would mean refusing entry and treatment to all non-covid patients.

A highly contagious surge of ?

Temporary hospitals is a good idea that every other country has been doing for the past one year and eight months now. Japan might want to have a thought.

It's untrue or exaggerating. Don't forget that the covid situations in many other countries have been much worse than in Japan since the pandemic outset. They've suffered substantial shortage and overwhelmed healthcare services, and that's not the case seen in Japan.

In many countries including ones of advanced economy and healthcare systems, asymptomatic and non-serious patients without health risks are not usually admitted to local hospitals but left at home for self-care (perhaps with help of medication and access to family doctors). Their hospitalization period is shorter than that in Japan.

Temporary hospitals is a good idea that every other country has been doing for the past one year and eight months now.

I don't believe you are correct that every other country has been doing this.