Six months after the March 11 disaster that devastated northeastern Japan, many hospitals in the Tohoku region are still struggling to get back up to speed.
Six months after the March 11 disaster that devastated northeastern Japan, many hospitals in the Tohoku region are still struggling to get back up to speed.
About 30 percent of the hospitals in the hardest hit coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are still forced to restrict medical care by capping the number of patients they admit and the number of surgical operations they perform, The Asahi Shimbun has found.
The findings indicate it may take longer than expected to restore full medical services in the areas to pre-quake levels, although healthcare facilities are on track to return to normalcy.
The number of hospitals in the affected areas limiting medical care has declined to 30 percent from the 43 percent recorded in a similar survey conducted in mid-April, one month after the 9.0-magnitude temblor. The proportion of hospital beds in use has increased to 83 percent from 74 percent in mid-April. However, 2,570 beds remain unusable in coastal areas.
The Asahi Shimbun, with the support of local hospitals, healthcare centers and a medical association, sought to determine progress in the restoration of 115 hospitals and clinics in the coastal areas of the three prefectures from Aug. 29 to Sept. 5. These hospitals and clinics fall into nine secondary medical districts in the region. Hospitals in medical districts--determined on the basis of the need for hospital beds--intend to complete medical care, such as surgeries and emergency services, within the district.
Eleven hospitals in the prefectures, all of which had served as the main medical facility of a respective area, were destroyed by the quake and its resulting tsunami, including four public hospitals in Iwate Prefecture and Ishinomaki Municipal Hospital in Miyagi Prefecture. Although these hospitals started providing outpatient care after building temporary facilities, they have not regained full capabilities in terms of hospitalization and surgeries.
Many clinics in the region have not fully recovered in providing emergency services at night either, although most resumed operations by setting up makeshift facilities.
The number of emergency patients has doubled from pre-quake levels at Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital, the largest medical facility in Ishinomaki, raising concerns that staff workload has become too heavy.
The significant shortage of doctors--which was a major problem in the Tohoku region even before the quake--is another issue to be dealt with. Fifteen doctors are dead or still missing due to the tsunami in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.
In Fukushima Prefecture, where the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crisis is still unfolding, many staff at hospitals evacuated the area. According to the prefectural government, the number of employed doctors dropped to 58 from 119 as of August in the Soso medical district, where the plant is located, as local residents evacuated to avoid radiation exposure. Some hospitals have not been able to resume operations because they are so understaffed. In the Iwaki medical district, a number of nurses left, while 16 doctors from the inland city of Koriyama moved out of the area.
By medical department, obstetrics and gynecology saw a marked shortfall in doctors. Demand has grown for responses to a lack of experts or devices to maintain medical equipment, as well as measures regarding the elderly, who have difficulty reaching medical care services.
(This article was written by Kayoko Geji and Shingo Fukushima.)