Photo/Illutration A hotel in Toshima Ward takes in COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms under the request of Tokyo metropolitan government. (Nobuo Fujiwara)

Medical workers in Tokyo are warning of a pending crisis in the health care system if the metropolitan government continues to play catch-up with trends in new COVID-19 cases.

The government has changed its guidelines on, for example, available hospital beds for infected patients, following the ebb and flow in confirmed cases in the capital during the pandemic.

With the daily number of new infections now hitting daily records, hospitals and long-term care facilities feel they are now in a precarious position.

“The pace of increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases has exceeded the pace of securing empty beds to take in patients,” Yoshihiro Yamaguchi, who heads the Trauma and Critical Care Center of Kyorin University Hospital, said on July 15 at a meeting held by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

As of July 16, 760 people were hospitalized in Tokyo with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, 2.7 times the figure of 280 on July 1.

Tokyo metropolitan government officials urged health care institutions to secure about 2,800 beds by July 13.

But Yamaguchi told the meeting, “The fact is we have only secured about 1,500 beds.”

In April, Kawakita General Hospital in Suginami Ward made 38 beds available for COVID-19 patients and those suspected to be infected with the virus.

After the number of new coronavirus cases decreased, the hospital in June decided to keep 21 beds for COVID-19 patients.

But with the new request from the metropolitan government, the hospital will bring the number of available beds back to 36 starting from July 20. Patients who have occupied these beds for illnesses other than COVID-19 will be asked to move to another unit in the hospital.

However, not all hospital staff are ready to take care of COVID-19 patients. Some have elderly family members at home and do not want to risk being infected at work.

“We need to reassign staff. It will take some time to make these beds available for COVID-19 patients,” a staff member said. “It cannot be done as soon as the (government) says ‘go.’ It doesn’t work like that.”

Tokyo also lacks a sufficient number of care facilities that can take in patients with mild symptoms.

The metropolitan government initially secured five hotels for patients with mild symptoms. But the government decided to keep only two of them starting from July after the number of patients dropped in May.

However, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the capital began skyrocketing and reached 100 on July 2. The daily tally has remained in triple-digits and hit a record 293 on July 17.

At the start of the surge, only about 100 hotel rooms were available for patients.

On July 16, the metropolitan government started using a Toshima Ward hotel, which can take in about 110 people, as a care facility. Another hotel is scheduled to open its door for patients on July 23.

Under the metropolitan government’s guidelines, patients with no or mild symptoms are, in principle, requested to stay at a hotel, not at home.

“But we won’t have enough rooms available if the number keeps going up,” a Tokyo official said.

In fact, 248 patients were staying at home in Tokyo as of July 16, a jump from 39 on July 1.

Authorities have no means of controlling the movement of the patients at home, who might stray from self-quarantine and end up spreading the virus outside.

Similarly, these patients have no immediate access to medical treatment if their conditions suddenly worsen.

“There should be certain guidelines for those staying at home,” Yamaguchi said. “The current strategy needs to be changed. Otherwise the (health care system) will collapse.”

(This article was written by Ayako Tsukidate and Chiaki Ogihara.)

Related News