A 31-year-old doctor in Mie Prefecture is endeavoring to alleviate the problem of emergency room overcrowding in his city by…
MATSUSAKA —
A 31-year-old doctor in Mie Prefecture is endeavoring to alleviate the problem of emergency room overcrowding in his city by running a night and holiday first-aid clinic.
Masashi Ryosetsu opened the clinic in November 2015 hoping to stop people treating hospitals like “a convenience store” for minor ailments, and particularly to stop those with such problems calling upon the already stretched ambulance service.
He wants to treat cases like that of a man who presented at his clinic on a Saturday night with his 4-year-old daughter who was complaining of a sore finger, a situation that may normally require a trip to the emergency room if no other option is available.
Using a toy to help in his diagnosis, Ryosetsu told the father, “There should be no problem, ” before sterilizing the reddish spot and prescribing an ointment.
On that Nov 5 evening, 40 people, in addition to the young girl, visited Ryosetsu’s Ioji Okyu Clinic in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture. They included a farmer who had sliced his knee with a tea leaf cutter, a man complaining of throat soreness and a woman suffering from diarrhea and vomiting.
Matsusaka is a municipality where the number of ambulance dispatches is relatively high.
Even though the city already has a first-aid clinic servicing people with minor injuries and ailments on holidays and at night, it only opens for two and a half hours in the evening. Patients who cannot wait until the morning often resort to calling an ambulance.
“If emergency rooms become too busy, doctors cannot find enough time for patients really in need of treatment for serious injuries or diseases, ” Ryosetsu said.
“A senior doctor I respect has quit (an emergency room job) because he was so exhausted.”
The situation needs to be rectified in order to maintain reliable and sufficient levels of emergency medical care, he said.
But running a clinic that opens mainly at night and on Sundays and holidays is financially difficult, according to Ryosetsu.
