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Some medical institutions do not comply with requests, and there is a risk of a shortfall in hospital beds if the infections spread rapidly in the future.

7 Comments

A senior health ministry official. The government is considering giving central and prefectural governments more power over medical institutions in the event of a rapid spread of the coronavirus or other infectious diseases.

© Yomiuri Shimbun

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As long as it is properly done this could help preventing bottlenecks, but looking at how the government has failed to solve other problems in health services (for example the very uneven distribution of different services of specialty between big cities and more rural areas) I do not feel confident this can be done without causing more problems than it solves.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Then why not build more hospitals instead of pachinkos?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

There are other things you can do, too. If the medical institutions refuse to do what is asked of them, simply refuse to subsidize them. Stop government payments through the National Health Care system for a year per request refused. That'd change things pretty quick. I mean, come on... what power are they going to give them? The power to print the names of said institutions in the newspapers and give them free advertising as a result? We saw how effective that was for pachinko parlors and restaurants -- huge lines the next day to get in.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

The big private-sector role in Japan's state-funded healthcare system is most often the cause of serious problems. This fragmented, expensive and self-serving system that routinely rejects emergency and Covid patients needs to be nationalized, like the one in the UK.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The government is considering giving central and prefectural governments more power over medical institutions in the event of a rapid spread of the coronavirus or other infectious diseases.

they should. it is plain dumb to think that the central government can micromanage this or any pandemic. Municipal governments are more aware of the individual needs of their respective areas and should be able to act accordingly. They should not be bogged down by Kasumigaseki.

-1 ( +9 / -10 )

I’m going to actually ask the hospitals in my area! …..Ok I will try the next prefectural hospitals…. Ok maybe the next next hospitals…..ok , no response so guess I just wait.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

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