A year ago, a 26-year-old doctor who was working at a hospital in Kobe City committed suicide due to failure to improve his long working hours. A lawsuit was filed in the Osaka District Court seeking compensation of over 30 million yen.
The suit was filed by the parents of Sengo Takashima (then 26 years old), a doctor who worked at Konan Medical Center in Higashinada Ward, Kobe City, who passed away in May of last year.
According to the complaint, Mr. Takashima had been working as a ``specialist'' in gastroenterology since April of last year, learning specialized techniques, but he developed depression and committed suicide the following month.
He worked overtime for at least 236 hours in the month leading up to his death, working 100 days in a row, and also preparing presentations at academic conferences under the guidance of his superiors, which were extremely long hours. It is said that there was a lot of work and mental strain.
As a result, the parents have filed a lawsuit against Konan-kai, the corporation that runs the hospital, alleging that the director and others failed to take measures such as reducing workloads, despite knowing that the work style was overworked and could harm their mental and physical health. On the 2nd, a lawsuit was filed in the Osaka District Court against the chairman of the board of directors and director of Konan Medical Center, Eisei Gu, seeking compensation of over 234 million yen.
The Labor Standards Inspection Office has recognized Takashima's death as an industrial accident, and has referred the corporation and hospital director to the prosecutor's office on suspicion of violating the Labor Standards Act.
Konan Medical Center “Respond with sincerity”
Regarding the lawsuit, Konan Medical Center commented, ``We take the filing of the lawsuit very seriously.We will respond in good faith so that the court can make an appropriate decision based on the truth.''
On the other hand, Director Koo of Konan Medical Center said at a press conference held in August last year, ``There is a high degree of freedom in the way doctors work, and it is difficult to know accurate working hours unless you are an individual doctor. In response to an interview with NHK after the lawsuit was filed, Konan Medical Center said, ``The allegations made at the time have not changed to this day.''
Mother: “As a family, we can’t forgive this.”
After filing the lawsuit, Takashima's mother and brother held a press conference.
Among them, his mother Junko said, ``We never expected that Chengo, who had become a doctor and devoted himself to his duties, would become a victim of death from overwork at such a young age. He said he wanted to know, but I don't know what the hospital is thinking.As a family, we can't allow it to be pretended that Chengo's death never happened.''He said, sometimes tearing up. I was talking while
``I will never forget the smile on my face when I said, ``I want to be a kind and gentle doctor.'' Although I can no longer save patients, I hope that by going through the trial and preventing death from overwork from happening again, I will be able to help many of my junior colleagues. I hope to become a 'kind doctor' who can save doctors' lives."
In addition, Takashima's brother said, ``We wanted to hear from the hospital director what he thought about Chengo's death, but since that hasn't been done for over a year, we decided to file a lawsuit.'' The problem of death from overwork will not be solved unless we raise awareness of the working environment.I believe that the mindset of other doctors and hospital administrators will change in the future, and many doctors' lives will be saved.'' We were talking.