Starting today, legal upper limit regulations on working hours will apply to doctors who treat patients. Some people in the field have pointed out that this is a loophole in the reform.
Last year, Hakodate Municipal Hospital responded to more than 6,600 emergency transport cases. In Matsumae Town, Hokkaido, the dispatch of pediatricians has been discontinued. The town says the only way to survive for the time being is through medical examinations by a general practitioner. As a result, it is no possible to see a pediatrician weekly in the town.