THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 26, 2021 at 16:55 JST
Asahikawa Medical University President Akitoshi Yoshida, left, and its affiliated hospital chief, Hiroyuki Furukawa, hold a news conference in Hokkaido in January 2020 over a scandal involving professors. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
ASAHIKAWA, Hokkaido--The chief of Asahikawa Medical University Hospital was fired after he revealed a confrontation with the university president over his refusal to accept COVID-19 patients, sources said.
The dismissal of Hiroyuki Furukawa was announced on Jan. 25, when an explanatory meeting was held for employees and other related people at state-run Asahikawa Medical University, the sources said.
The reason given for the termination was that Furukawa leaked information about university meetings to outsiders, the sources said.
Furukawa denied the accusation but was removed as hospital chief.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun in December, Furukawa said the university president, Akitoshi Yoshida, refused to accept COVID-19 patients from Yoshida Hospital, also in Asahikawa city, after a large group infection occurred there.
“He told me to leave my job if I accept those patients,” Furukawa said.
Yoshida was also quoted as saying at a university meeting in November, “If the (Yoshida) hospital would just disappear, the novel coronavirus problem would go away.”
Bunshun Online reported the comment, along with audio data, in December. The university confirmed the comment was made by the president and said “the statement was inappropriate.”
Yoshida admitted to making that remark.
“We couldn’t accept the COVID-19 patients because our hospital was not prepared enough,” he said.
The university side said Furukawa caused confusion in the hospital’s operations by mentioning Yoshida’s remark to The Asahi Shimbun and having interviews with other news media, the sources said.
In late December, the education ministry asked the university about the matter. The ministry also plans to directly interview Furukawa, sources said.
(This article was written by Sen Inoue, Daijiro Honda and Kazuyuki Ito.)
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