Growing old in Japan not a good idea
A recent incident in Osaka underscores a government-created medical emergency in Japan that most probably will only get worse.
Last week an 89-year-old woman whose family called an ambulance when she started experiencing vomiting and diarrhea died after she was rejected for admittance by thirty hospitals. The poor woman was finally admitted two hours after the family called the ambulance.
The hospitals rejected the woman because they claimed they were too full or that doctors were not available to treat her.
The latest case underscores Japan’s health care woes, in part created by a shortage of doctors in the country’s rapidly aging society. Critics say long working hours and a government policy change several years ago to keep the number of doctors down are to blame.
Faced with a rapidly aging society, the government implements a policy to limit the number of doctors in the country. . . Brilliant!
Thanks to Vin Alsace
This is crazy. I read about this the day it happened
December 30th, 2007 at 11:15 pmand was going to post it myself but was so PO’d.
Every person that works at all 30 hospitals should be
ashamed and hide their faces. From the lowest janitor
to the highest doctor and office person. They have no
honor. What if been one of their mothers?
Any of the hospitals should have been able to take
the lady in and at the least stabilize her and then
find a bed for her at another hospital if necessary.
And certainly not in another city.
If this is somewhat normal I certainly hope I don’t
get sick or injured when I visit Japan, or at least
do it near a US military base.
And this is one or the most advanced countries in
the world?
[...] You can read the rest here. (Via Japundit) [...]
December 31st, 2007 at 10:55 amYou mean limiting the number of doctors on the government’s payroll, right?
That’s socialized medicine for you.
December 31st, 2007 at 11:42 amSee a good discussion of the problem here.
December 31st, 2007 at 12:00 pmWhat I find amusing is that Japanese hospitals are frequently depicted in J-dramas as being super-clean and utterly devoid of other patients where spare beds are easier to snag than at a busy hotel. I also notice that J-dramas tend to show Tokyo as a really tiny town in which characters often choose to forgo wheeled means of transportation and run around on foot instead.
December 31st, 2007 at 1:19 pmCome on everyone, she was 89.
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 pmAt this age, being admitted in an hospital wouldn’t have helped much. I bet she would have just died in the hospital if she had been admitted.