The government will create a database containing such information as medical system capacity and inventories at about 8,000 hospitals across the country to speed up the handling of patients infected with the new coronavirus, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The government aims to launch the system as early as this month.
Relevant ministries, agencies and local governments will share the collected data for such purposes as prioritizing the distribution of medical supplies and arranging medical institutions to treat seriously ill patients, according to sources.
The fiscal 2020 supplementary budget included about 740 million yen in related expenses. A division jointly established by the Cabinet Secretariat and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will manage the expenses.
About 8,000 hospitals nationwide will update information on the envisioned database online and by fax, including:
-- The numbers of outpatients, patients hospitalized and discharged
-- The occupancy of hospital beds
-- Usage conditions of ventilators
-- The number of Polymerase chain reaction tests conducted
-- The numbers of medical supplies such as masks and protective gowns in stock
Currently, local governments of prefectures and ordinance-designated cities collate such information before reporting the data to the central government: A process that means up-to-date information takes a long time to emerge.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry gathers relevant information by contacting prefectural governments and other such entities on the phone in cases of emergency. The new database will enable the central government and each local government to quickly and efficiently grasp the situation nationwide.
The central government will use the database to identify medical institutions that are short of masks and protective gowns and prioritize such facilities in the distribution of medical goods. As local governments will be able to check other areas' data on hospital bed occupancy and the number of ventilators, among other information, the database is also expected to make it easier to swiftly coordinate hospitals that can accept seriously ill patients from other prefectures.
At a meeting of the government's Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters on April 24, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "In order to deliver as much medical protective equipment as possible to frontline medical staff, it is necessary to promptly proceed with work to develop a system that can help us grasp the situation."
The central government by Friday had distributed 80 million surgical masks and 1.46 million medical gowns, among other goods, to medical institutions nationwide. However, with many hospitals still facing shortages, it plans to distribute more equipment in the near future.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
