Focusing on dealing with home care recipients New patient restriction clinic in Tokyo

How will we protect the lives of people who are being treated at home as the infection of the new coronavirus spreads rapidly?

In Tokyo, where the number of home care recipients exceeds 14,000, which is the largest number ever, some clinics have severely restricted the response to new patients and concentrated on dealing with home care recipients.

From the 4th, the clinic that provides home medical care in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo has decided to significantly limit the response to new patients and concentrate on the response to home care patients.

At the clinic, about 10 requests for health observations and home visits are received from health centers, etc. every day, and doctors call patients undergoing medical treatment to hear about changes in body temperature and physical condition. I did.

Under these circumstances, when I judged that I was ill, I went to the patient's home with a doctor and a nurse.

Of these, patients in their twenties had a high fever of over 39 degrees Celsius, and their families complained that they were too tired to drink water.

Doctors and nurses change into protective clothing, go to the home visit, collect blood, check if there is a risk of dehydration, and continue to follow up for a while.

For another patient in his twenties who also visited on the 4th, the situation was summarized in a report.

According to it, the patient had a low fever of 37 degrees, but low oxygen levels in his blood.

However, it is difficult to accept them immediately at the surrounding hospitals, so doctors are asked to use equipment that can take oxygen at home and see what happens.

"Shinjuku Hiro Clinic" director Hidehiro said, "We will support the response to home care patients in the community according to the risk. We must respond speedily and without omission. After opening for more than 20 years This is the first time I have chosen to reduce the number of new patients. If I want to deal with positive people, I have to reduce other tasks. If you are a new patient and can wait for a while, please wait. 8 I think I'm Yama for the first month of the month, so I have to take a system. "