New Corona Hospital bed tightness Hospitals with five times the number of emergency acceptance requests are also in Tokyo

Due to the spread of the new coronavirus, the occupancy rate of hospital beds in some hospitals in Tokyo has reached 90%, and the number of requests to accept emergency patients has increased fivefold compared to usual, and there is no choice but to refuse.

The Tokyo Kita Medical Center in Kita Ward, Tokyo has 31 dedicated beds for the new corona and is actively accepting mainly patients with moderate illness.

The number of patients infected with corona began to increase around the beginning of last month, and as of the 13th, 29 beds, which account for 90% of the total, were occupied, and pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology beds also accepted patients infected with corona. It means that

In the 7th wave, many patients were accepted at the request of the metropolitan government and public health centers, but in the 8th wave, there were an increasing number of cases in which patients who were hospitalized for other illnesses were found to be infected by subsequent tests. That's it.

Under these circumstances, the number of staff infected has increased, and about 20 to 30 people in general medical departments such as internal medicine and pediatrics have been infected one after another.

In addition, the number of requests for acceptance of emergency services has increased significantly, about five times the usual number, and many of them are patients who have a fever or have been confirmed to be positive, but we have to refuse acceptance because the beds are full. It continues to be missing.

Regarding this situation, Dr. Kunihisa Miyazaki of the Tokyo North Medical Center said, "Not only can we not receive corona patients, but we are also delayed in accepting general patients who really need medical treatment, and if we respond quickly, it will be too late for those who have recovered. I'm worried that there will be other cases," he said.

In addition, since November last year, nine people in their 70s and 90s who were infected with the corona died at the hospital, but many of them died due to worsening of underlying diseases triggered by the corona infection. It means that there are cases where people do not want life-prolonging treatments such as massage.

Dr. Miyazaki said, "If the number of infected people increases, the number of deaths will also increase, so we have to make efforts to reduce the number of infected people."