Sickness of hospital bed due to new corona effect May cause "collapse" in emergency medical care Sapporo May 20 20:11

In response to an interview with NHK, the director of an emergency hospital in Sapporo City revealed that the new coronavirus may cause the hospital bed to become tight and may not be able to accept new emergency patients. The director points out, "Isn't there any similar situation in the emergency hospitals in Sapporo city? There is an urgent need to take measures to prevent the collapse of the emergency medical system."

Shunichi Okushiba, the director of the Dounan Hospital, a secondary emergency medical institution in Chuo-ku, Sapporo, accepts emergency patients who need to be hospitalized.

Dr. Okushiba stated that “a new patient will come in as soon as the room is vacant” regarding the emergency medical system after a large number of consecutive holidays, and the hospital bed may remain under pressure, and new emergency patients may not be accepted. I made it clear.

According to Dr. Okushiba, there are many cases of fever with symptoms of fever as well as injury and poor physical condition, "if you have a fever, you need to suspect that you are infected with the new coronavirus."

For this reason, at the hospital, everyone is put in private rooms to prevent nosocomial infections, and as a result, about 100 beds of private rooms are almost completely filled.

In addition, Director Okushiba also revealed that there are cases where a single department medical institution such as an orthopedic clinic, which normally accepts emergency patients, refuses to accept patients who complain of fever because of fear of nosocomial infection. There is no cooperation. "

“I am desperately trying to save my life, but I think that the situation is the same for all emergency hospitals in Sapporo City. To prevent the“ collapse ”of the emergency medical system, rebuild the cooperation system of medical institutions.” Is an urgent task. "

Hospital "It is difficult to completely eliminate the risk of infection"

The Doonan Hospital, which responded to the interview this time, has a history of discontinuing all treatments for about a week in March when two outpatients and a nurse were infected with the new coronavirus.

The first confirmed infection was a patient who visited the outpatient clinic complaining of malaise, and the infected nurse was pushing the wheelchair and assisting with the infusion of the patient.

The nurse had about 1 hour to contact the patient, and because the patient had no symptoms such as fever or cough, he initially did not suspect an infection and did not wear gloves.

For this reason, the hospital says that after that, it takes measures such as measuring the temperature of all the visitors and isolating those with a fever in a dedicated room for examination.

However, Shunichi Okushiba, the director of the hospital, pointed out that it is not realistic to always protect thoroughly with gloves and gowns while suspecting infection of all patients, while supplies for protection are limited, "If everyone thinks that they are infected and responds to them, the protective materials will be lost in no time," he said, making it difficult to completely eliminate the risk of infection.

Small medical institutions refuse to accept

Regarding the current state of emergency medical care in Hokkaido, including Sapporo City, Hokkaido said, `` Because of the new coronavirus, especially in Sapporo city, the number of hospitals that can accept emergency patients is decreasing as a whole. The burden on next emergency medical institutions is increasing. "

Regarding the reason, the way is that there are cases where single department hospitals and clinics that usually accept emergency patients, such as orthopedics, refuse to accept emergency patients who complain of fever symptoms because of fear of nosocomial infection, Michi said, “For small medical institutions with limited personnel and equipment, refusal to accept is inevitable given the risk of nosocomial infections.”

Furthermore, hospitals such as the municipal Sapporo Hospital and the Hokkaido Medical Center, which can be said to be the center of emergency medical care in the region, have no choice but to concentrate on receiving patients with the new coronavirus, resulting in secondary emergency medical care such as Dounan Hospital. The institution says that the burden of receiving emergency patients is increasing.

Michi believes that unless the momentum of the spread of the new coronavirus has subsided, this situation cannot be changed significantly.We would like to use mediation of the route to promote discussions between medical institutions and strengthen the acceptance system. I am.