Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to make it mandatory to designate "cooperating medical institutions" for sudden changes in residents, etc.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has decided to make it mandatory for each facility to designate a medical institution that can provide consultation and medical treatment at night and on holidays in preparation for sudden changes in the physical condition of residents of special nursing homes and other facilities.

Many long-term care insurance facilities, such as special nursing homes for the elderly, have designated hospitals that can respond when medical care is needed, but during the spread of the new coronavirus, there were a series of cases where infected residents were refused to accept them, and there was a problem of the spread of infection in the facility.

In order to solve the problem of cooperation with medical institutions, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has decided to make it mandatory for facilities such as special nursing homes for the elderly and long-term care health facilities for the elderly to designate "cooperating medical institutions" to respond to sudden changes in the condition of residents, regardless of the spread of infection.

The conditions for a "cooperating medical institution" are that
the medical institutions must have a system in place where doctors and nursing staff can provide consultations at night and on holidays, and

that they must have a system that allows them to be admitted to the hospital in the event of an emergency.

It is also a policy to designate multiple medical institutions and make it possible to meet these conditions by sharing.

On the other hand, in order to prevent overcrowding of medical institutions, we will strengthen cooperation such as information sharing between medical institutions and facilities so that residents who have been admitted to "cooperating medical institutions" can return to their facilities promptly if their condition improves.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will present this policy at a council meeting held this week and will formally decide on it in the future, including when it will start making it mandatory.