Discrimination against medical institutions and staff continues to be seen amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, medical institutions are losing employees one after another and are reluctant to accept COVID-19 patients, which is contributing to a shortage of hospital beds for such patients. Moves have therefore grown to support medical personnel, with 57 virus-related ordinances, including those prohibiting discrimination, enacted in municipalities across the nation.
-- Harassment
Early in the morning of Jan. 28, Kazuhiro Nagao, the 62-year-old director of the Nagao Clinic in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, received a call from a security company. "A window has been broken," Nagao was told.
Rushing to the clinic, Nagao found pieces of glass scattered around. The incident occurred at a time when infections were increasing in a so-called third wave.
"I thought this was harassment linked to the coronavirus," he said.
The clinic began examining patients suspected of having the virus in March last year. To prevent them from coming into contact with ordinary patients, the clinic set up a tent for people with a fever on its premises. Since then, it has handled more than 230 patients who tested positive for the virus.
However, some local residents are concerned about the clinic's acceptance of COVID-19 patients. A passerby once said to him, "What will you do if the virus spreads because of you?"
"I understand that people are scared about infections, but many patients who come to this clinic are at a loss after being turned away from other places," Nagao said. "I want people to understand."
This month, the clinic began seeing the number of COVID-19 patients increase again with the spread of coronavirus variants. "I feel discrimination is getting stronger," Nagao said.
-- Employees quitting
In a survey urgently conducted between October and December last year by the Japan Medical Association about harmful rumors related to the coronavirus, medical institutions nationwide reported 698 cases of damage from such rumors. Of these, 38% of those harmed were medical institutions, while 43% were medical workers. In one situation, a medical institution said its regular patients had stopped coming out of fear of infection.
Such harmful rumors have also led to a shortage of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. "Many small and midsize private hospitals have been reluctant to accept [COVID-19] patients because they're concerned about harmful rumors," said Kokuto Kimori, an executive board member of the association.
At a press conference on April 8, Yasuaki Kawamura, chairman of the Yamaguchi Medical Association, expressed his concern, saying, "Medical workers are leaving their jobs one after another because of prejudice and discrimination."
In the prefecture, nurses and other staff members have left medical institutions where clusters of infections occurred since the beginning of this year. One hospital has seen about 20% of its employees quit.
-- 57 virus-related ordinances
The central and local governments are taking measures to address the issue.
In February, the law on special measures against new strains of influenza was revised to call for the central and local governments to assess the actual situation, provide consultation support and conduct awareness-raising activities to ensure that the human rights of infected people and healthcare workers are respected and they are not treated in a discriminatory manner.
According to the Research Institute for Local Government, there were 57 ordinances related to the coronavirus established nationwide as of March 29 for purposes such as prohibiting discrimination against infected people and healthcare workers.
In Okinawa Prefecture, where such an ordinance was enacted in July last year, the prefectural government launched a consultation service for medical personnel in cooperation with a prefecture-certified association of psychologists.
A virus-related ordinance was established in December last year in Mie Prefecture, and a new forum was created to allow the prefectural government, the prefectural police, the Legal Affairs Bureau and other entities to discuss concrete measures against discrimination.
"It's a step forward that the central government has clarified its stance under the law that discrimination will not be tolerated, but measures differ among local governments," said Sho Takahashi, a University of Tsukuba associate professor specializing in disaster and community psychiatry. "Each local government should make efforts to provide effective support, such as by setting up a consultation desk where medical personnel can discuss their issues easily."
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