Happy New Year! What is your new year’s resolution? My resolution is to keep good health.
So today, I am writing about Japanese hospitals. We have both private and public hospitals. A lot of local governments including prefectures and municipalities run their hospitals; local government-run hospitals are responsible for providing necessary medical services, especially in rural areas where it is difficult for private hospitals to deliver services with profits.
However, in recent years, the financial condition of local government-run hospitals has been very weak and it has become more difficult to continue operating them due to the shortage of doctors and necessary equipment.
For this reason, local governments have made hospital reform plans which aim to develop more efficient management. The plans illustrate how to make a network among hospitals in each medical zone; they also divide functions and responsibilities among them and improve the capacity of core hospitals, so that they can play the role of regional medical centres, and doctors can be dispatched from them to other small hospitals.
Keeping their residents’ lives healthy is one of the most important roles of local governments.
I wish you a year filled with peace, happiness and good health.
