Governors in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, already busy trying to protect residents from COVID-19, are now publicly frowning on Tokyo Olympic organizers’ request to make hospital beds available exclusively for athletes.

“Hypothetically speaking, if I am confronted with a decision to choose between a resident and an athlete, I cannot easily give priority to the athlete,” Ibaraki Governor Kazuhiko Oigawa said at a news conference on May 12.

The prefectural Ibaraki Kashima Stadium is a venue for Olympic soccer matches.

Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai was more direct at a May 13 news conference. He said flatly that he will not set aside a certain number of hospital beds for Olympians and Paralympians.

The prefecture is scheduled to host events for eight sports, such as surfing, fencing and wrestling.

The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games initially announced plans to designate about 10 hospitals in Tokyo and 20 or so outside the capital to treat participating athletes if they suffer injuries or become ill.

But hospital beds are in short supply because of the increase in COVID-19 patients and other factors caused by the pandemic.

Under the organizers’ plan, when a clinic or first-aid room at an Olympic venue or the athletes’ village cannot treat a competitor’s injury or illness, the athlete will first see a doctor at one of the designated hospitals.

If the injury is severe or the illness is caused by the novel coronavirus, the athlete will be transported to one of the designated hospitals if a bed is available.

However, the organizers have not decided what to do if the designated hospitals in the area have no beds to treat the athlete.

The organizers are discussing what to do in such a scenario with the Tokyo metropolitan government and other local governments.

Toshiro Muto, CEO of the organizing committee, repeated that the Olympics will not put a strain on local health care systems.

“We are not asking to secure hospital beds in advance for exclusive use (by athletes),” he said.

SUGA URGED TO CANCEL GAMES

But medical workers on the front lines are not so optimistic.

An increasing number of them are protesting the idea of holding the potential “superspreader” event, where 15,000 athletes and up to 90,000 related officials from around the world will gather in the capital.

The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association, an organization of 6,000 or so primary care doctors in the capital, on May 14 submitted an opinion paper to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, urging him to cancel the Games.

“Our hands are already tied,” the organization said.

Medical workers in Tokyo and other prefectures are struggling to deal with the increase in patients caused by the fourth wave of novel coronavirus infections, particularly from COVID-19 variants.

In addition, delays in the vaccination program have been caused in part by shortages of medical staff who can administer the shots.

“A sense of crisis has heightened on the medical front that if the Olympics are held as scheduled, we will not be able to protect people’s lives and health,” a representative of the association’s secretariat division said.

The association said it has sent the opinion paper to other leaders, namely, Tamayo Marukawa, state minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympics, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo organizing committee.

The association is seriously questioning the Olympic organizers’ plan to secure 30 designated hospitals to take in athletes.

“It is not clear to us if 30 hospitals are enough because the organizers have not released a plan for the ‘worst case scenario,’ like a situation where many people suffer from heatstroke,” the representative said.

The representative also noted that most of the designated hospitals are general hospitals. “Once their available bed situation becomes tight, primary care doctors will not be able to send their patients to the hospitals.”

Health care workers also said there already isn’t enough of them to adequately deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

Olympic organizers said around 10,000 doctors and nurses will be needed to work at venues and first-aid rooms during the Games. Hospitals around the nation have been asked to cooperate with the plan and dispatch medical staff.

For example, the organizers have called on the Japanese Nursing Association to send 500 nurses to the Games.

The request was immediately criticized by health care workers’ unions as out of touch with reality.

In Ibaraki Prefecture, 41 nurses in summer 2018 applied for volunteer positions to treat athletes at the soccer venue and practice facilities.

But by April 20, 28 of the volunteers, or 70 percent, had withdrawn, prompting Olympic organizers to urge the Ibaraki Nursing Association to make sure that more than 10 nurses would volunteer at the Games, according to the association.

A representative of the association said the mass withdrawal occurred most likely because “medical workers are needed to speed up the vaccination program, and (health care facilities) can’t afford to spare any manpower for the Olympics.”

The Olympic organizers are now trying to decrease the number of necessary health care workers at each venue by adjusting shifts.

Health care workers are also needed at first-aid stations between each venue and the nearest train station. Local governments are negotiating with local medical associations to make that happen.

The organizers also called for 200 sports doctors to volunteer at the Games through the Japan Sport Association. So far, 393 have applied.

If the Games are held without spectators, the organizers can significantly downsize the number of required health care workers, according to a source close to the organizers.

“If a spectator contracts COVID-19, it will put a further burden on the local health care system,” the source said. “The (organizers) need to make a decision to hold the Games without spectators as soon as possible to reduce such burden.”