Dissatisfaction is smoldering over the availability of hospital beds for novel coronavirus patients, as medical professionals say the announced occupancy rate does not reflect the reality of how many beds are actually available.
Prefectural governments have an "expected number of hospital beds" that they intend to secure at the peak of novel coronavirus infections. This does not match the number immediately available, as the expected number includes beds planned to be vacated for coronavirus patients when necessary.
One to two weeks of preparation will be needed in some cases before such beds can be used for coronavirus patients.
When calculated according to the expected number of beds, the occupancy rate of critical care beds in Osaka is 58.1%. However, it is 77.6% when calculated according to actually available beds.
The same is true in Kanagawa, where the 30% occupancy rate jumps up to 68.2%.
According to officials, hospitals are tending to scale down the number of coronavirus patients they accept and take a wait-and-see approach. The main reasons are staff exhaustion due to the prolonged fight against the virus, and the financial blow resulting from the impact on regular medical treatments.
People involved say hospitals that have accepted coronavirus patients learned painful lessons from the first and second waves, and that facilities that are less cooperative are least likely to suffer damage.
A Tokyo hospital that has been reserving beds and accepting coronavirus patients is accepting only about two-thirds of its full capacity during the ongoing third wave.
A doctor in charge said: "If we accept patients until the beds are full, the staff will be overloaded and the workplace will become dysfunctional. There are patients with other illnesses as well, so if we accept all the coronavirus patients, medical care will collapse."
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