Photo/Illutration Doctors and nurses at a Saitama hospital treat a COVID-19 patient. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Only about half of Japan’s governors are confident of meeting the central government request to expand the number of medical institutions willing and able to treat COVID-19 after it is downgraded as an infectious disease. 

COVID-19 will be classified the same as the seasonal flu starting on May 8, and the central government has set new targets for the number of medical institutions that can provide out-patient and hospital care.

The Asahi Shimbun asked all 47 governors between March and April about their prefectural government’s plan to meet the central government request.

Only 26 governors said they would be able to meet the targets for out-patient and hospital care. Eighteen governors said they were uncertain about providing out-patient care while 19 gave the same response for hospital care.

Two governors--Yuriko Koike of Tokyo and Naomichi Suzuki of Hokkaido--did not respond. Katsusada Hirose responded on behalf of Oita Prefecture, but his term ended on April 27.

With COVID-19 to be downgraded to the same level as the seasonal flu, the central government wanted the number of medical institutions around Japan providing out-patient care to increase from the current 42,000 to 64,000. It also sought to boost the number providing hospital care from 5,000 to 8,200.

While the central government has not set a deadline for meeting those goals, it wants a medical structure in place by next winter when the next wave of COVID-19 cases is expected to surge.

Governors who were uncertain about meeting their targets gave as their main reason the need for more time to convince medical institutions to treat COVID-19 patients.

Some pointed to the cutting off of central government subsidies to treat the novel coronavirus as making it more difficult to persuade medical institutions, particularly in light of concerns that COVID-19 is much more infectious than the seasonal flu.

Prefectural governments have submitted plans for increasing the number of medical institutions capable of dealing with COVID-19 to the health ministry.

Health ministry officials released overall target numbers on April 27. The combined number for out-patient care is only about 70 percent of the central government’s goal.

About 7,400 medical institutions are expected to provide hospital care. The figure represents 90 percent of all hospitals in Japan.

Even medical institutions that have treated COVID-19 patients in the past said it would not be easy to convince those that have never treated such patients to do so.

“While the day will come when all hospitals can treat COVID-19, time will be needed before they become accustomed to treating it,” said Satoru Takahashi, the head of Nihon University Itabashi Hospital in Tokyo.

The hospital has treated COVID-19 patients and is now in the process of relaxing regulations, such as allowing visitors for patients and eliminating polymerase chain reaction tests for all potential in-patients.

One expert suggested gradually allowing medical institutions to become accustomed to treating COVID-19 patients.

Tetsuya Matsumoto, a professor of infectious diseases at the International University of Health and Welfare in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, said medical institutions that have never treated COVID-19 patients should at the beginning only handle such patients once a week or only in the afternoon.

“The central government should also provide specific support measures, such as allowing for greater use of cost subsidies and setting up venues to allow experienced doctors to teach others,” Matsumoto said.

(This article was written by Yusuke Nagano, Yuki Edamatsu and Mirei Jinguji.)

Related News