THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 4, 2021 at 16:55 JST
The National Stadium for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Tokyo Olympic organizers’ request for about 200 specialist doctors to volunteer at the summer event was met with bewilderment from those in the medical community who are already struggling in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee is seeking the free services of sports doctors to respond to visitors who fall ill at competition venues during the Games, sources said.
Only sports medicine doctors accredited by the Japan Sport Association are eligible for this voluntary work. Necessary expenses, such as transportation fees, will be provided.
The application deadline is May 14.
At least one eligible doctor questioned the wisdom of the request.
“How many hospitals now have the staffing capacity to spare doctors?” said a sports doctor who received the application handbook. “You also have to work long term, so it could be very difficult (to recruit sports medicine doctors).”
According to the application handbook, the volunteer doctors at the Olympics will tend to sick and injured people, including those suffering from heatstroke or who may be infected with the novel coronavirus.
The doctors will be required to work for three to five days, and they need to be at their designated workplaces for roughly nine hours a day, according to the handbook.
The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee has already asked the Japanese Nursing Association to dispatch 500 nurses to the Games.
Medical associations swiftly denounced that request, noting that local governments currently face shortages in medical personnel and front-line workers are already putting their lives on the line in dealing with novel coronavirus infections.
According to the Japan Sport Association, 6,420 doctors had sports medicine licenses as of Oct. 1, 2020.
Doctors can gain accreditation by the association four years after they obtain their medical licenses, and they must take lessons and be screened on sports medicine and nutrition.
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