Japanese Man Dies After 14 Hospitals Refuse to Take Him

[MJordan2121]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,487747,00.html

Injured Japanese Man Dies After 14 Hospitals Refuse to Admit Him

A 69-year-old Japanese man injured in a traffic accident died after paramedics spent more than an hour negotiating with 14 hospitals before finding one to admit him, a fire department official said Wednesday.

 

[artman17847]

.....and I thought we had problems in the US
**sighs, shaking head**

 

[Bosco578]

Bummer.:unsure:

 

[phabib]

Sad part is this isn't even that rare. The bureaucracy in Japan is crippling EMS there. Another report I've read told the story of an ambulance going lights and sirens to a scene, arriving, then taking 10 minutes to fill out paperwork and report on their location and status. They then hopped around for two hours trying to find a hospital that would admit a woman in labor.

For the world's second largest economy, they can do so much better. Tokyo EMS in particular has enormous resources, but the hospitals deny patients at their whim.

 

[Griff]

I have lived in Sasebo, JA (in Kyushu) for nearly four years now. The state of the local EDs here (the only part of non-military medicine I have seen personally) is simply atrocious. PPE is virtually non-existent and everything is simply filthy; when I provide escorts for our medical department (we just have a clinic here on base), I try very hard not to accidentally touch anything (if I have to be inside at all ). At least when I was there, not one Japanese medical professional utilized gloves (while our medical guys made it look like a CBR attack was imminent ). I would be quite curious regarding infection rates in Japan. Perhaps what I have seen is not representative of Japan as a whole; I sure hope not, at least.