Photo/Illutration An ambulance with flashing red lights passes through an intersection in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The government announced on Feb. 20 that it will introduce a digital system to speed up emergency patient transfers by enabling hospitals to quickly indicate their availability, reducing the time paramedics spend calling medical institutions.

Paramedics will first input patient symptoms and complaints on the platform for hospitals to respond to. Emergency responders will then be able to quickly head to an emergency center with vacancies. 

The health ministry plans to introduce the system in select municipalities from April to evaluate its effectiveness before expanding it to the rest of the country. 

Currently, paramedics must contact hospitals individually to check if they can accept a patient, often while providing emergency care. The system intends to ease this burden by eliminating this step entirely.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency responders would sometimes be turned away by dozens of hospitals and hours would pass before they were able to move certain patients. 

The number of emergency dispatches has continued to rise, reaching a record 7.64 million cases in 2023.

According to health ministry estimates, emergency transport for people ages 85 and older will increase by 75 percent in 2040 compared to 2020.

Improving the efficiency of emergency transport has become an urgent priority.

Some municipalities have already introduced private digital systems that allow hospitals to indicate whether they can accept emergency patients.

The health ministry plans to establish a framework to roll out its system nationwide and make it compatible with existing private systems.

Even in instances where neighboring fire departments use different private systems, hospitals should still be able to respond and coordinate smoothly.

Related News