"I was facing a crisis of" healthcare collapse "," said a hospital director in Sapporo.

“I was facing a crisis of“ healthcare collapse ”,” says a hospital director in Sapporo on April 7 at 5:12.

As the spread of the new coronavirus spread, Hokkaido declared its own "emergency situation" in February, but the director of a hospital in Sapporo, one of the treatment centers, responded to an interview with NHK. The hospital was facing the danger of “medical collapse” when it malfunctioned. ”

In February, in response to the increase in the number of infected people in February, we proactively declared an "emergency situation" ahead of the rest of the country and responded accordingly.

Mr. Masaya Mukai, Director of Sapporo Municipal Sapporo Hospital, which had accepted 31 infected patients by the end of last month as a designated medical institution for infectious diseases, interviewed NHK.

"A series of unexpected events in the hospital."

Dr. Mukai described the situation from February 28 to last month 18 when 19 new patients were hospitalized in succession. "The hospital was facing a series of unexpected situations, and was facing the danger of a so-called" healthcare collapse. " "

One unexpected case is a room for infectious diseases in which the air pressure is lowered so that the virus does not leak out, and a case where the patient cannot breathe when performing “tracheal intubation” to attach a ventilator to a severely ill patient. was.

Dr Mukai said, “Thanks to the dryness of the hospital room, the tan became very hard and the tube was clogged. I found it impossible to diagnose. "

The hospital decided not to accept severely ill patients in the ward for infectious diseases, and quickly decided to dedicate the critical care unit of the Critical Care Center to those with severe infections.

As a result, it has been forced to give up the rescue of severely ill patients such as traffic accidents, leaving them to other hospitals in the city.

"Inpatients and outpatients will have to deal with it, which is a huge burden."

Furthermore, since February 28, up to 10 people who reported symptoms such as fever visited the outpatient clinic every day, Dr. Mukai said. "There are three doctors specializing in infectious diseases. We had to deal with outpatients while treating inpatients, which was a huge burden. "

On the 9th of last month, all of the 10 beds for infections that had been prepared at that time were buried, and new infections could not be accepted.

Mukai said that the health center had played a major role in avoiding the medical collapse of the hospital, saying that the health center had coordinated the reception at three other medical institutions in the city.

The hospital also said that by the 18th of last month, 15 beds in different departments had been diverted to mildly infected patients so that up to 25 people could be accepted per day.

"I want to strengthen measures such as expanding the acceptance system utilizing lessons learned."

In Hokkaido, Governor Suzuki declared his own "emergency situation" on February 28, but according to Dr. Mukai, after the end of the declaration period last month, the number of newly infected people per day increased from 19 onwards. It is now out of the crisis because the number of outpatients has fallen.

"I knew that flooding hospitals with fever and other complaints was the biggest danger of medical disruption. I would like to use the lessons learned to strengthen measures such as expanding the acceptance system," said Mukai. I was

Expert "Needs cooperation between medical institutions assuming unexpectedness"

Professor Yoko Tsukamoto of Hokkaido Medical University, who is familiar with infectious disease countermeasures, said about the crisis faced by Sapporo Municipal Hospital, "Infectious diseases are unexpected. did.

In addition, the prevention of hospital-acquired infection was one of the important points in maintaining the medical treatment system. "It became clear that the need to further enhance measures to prevent infection of healthcare professionals. It is necessary to widely share the lessons learned and strengthen the preparedness of all medical institutions assuming the spread of infection, and it is necessary to cooperate with medical institutions that anticipate the unexpected. "