At least 10 Japanese medical institutions tasked with key emergency care services were suspending or restricting their acceptance of patients as of Monday due to the spread of the new coronavirus, Jiji Press learned Saturday.

The 10 facilities in Tokyo and four other prefectures are among the so-called tertiary emergency care medical institutions, which operate around the clock and provide sophisticated treatment. They are often referred to as "the last resort" for patients.

Medical institutions in nine prefectures had not suspended or restricted their tertiary emergency care services, but their acceptance of patients was nearing a limit or medical workers there were exhausted by heavy burdens, according to a Jiji Press questionnaire survey with the country's 47 prefectural governments.

"If coronavirus patients keep increasing, necessary treatment and operations for critical-care patients and urgent cancer cases would become impossible," said Joji Kotani, head of the emergency and critical-care center at Kobe University Hospital. "A medical system collapse would become a reality."

"We're short of hospital spaces and medical supplies such as masks and gowns, in addition to medical staff," he said. "We're walking on thin ice." His hospital was not among the 10 institutions.

According to the survey, Osaka City General Hospital and Osaka City University Hospital in the western prefecture of Osaka were suspending their acceptance of emergency patients except for those who used the hospitals before.

The Osaka General Medical Center was restricting its services to patients with certain grave symptoms.

In Hyogo Prefecture, neighboring Osaka, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital and the Hyogo Prefectural Kakogawa Medical Center was restricting emergency care services for general patients to put priority on coronavirus patients with severe symptoms.

In Tokyo, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital was limiting its acceptance of emergency patients to focus on coronavirus patients.

The Tokyo metropolitan government said another facility has reduced its acceptance of patients but did not disclose the name of the facility.

Tokyo Metropolitan Bokutoh Hospital has been suspending acceptance of patients at its emergency care center since Tuesday due to COVID-19 infections inside the hospital.

The Aichi prefectural government said more than one emergency care center in the central Japan prefecture was restricting its acceptance of emergency patients due to hospital infections or other reasons.

But Aichi said local medical institutions are working together and providing almost the same level of medical service as usual.

The Niigata prefectural government said it understands that some hospitals in the central Japan prefecture have restricted their emergency services.

Asked about the situation in emergency care services, the government of Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, said the situation is tough, while the government of Miyagi Prefecture in the country's northeast said some confusion has occurred at medical institutions.

The government of Kochi, western Japan, said medical institutions are struggling to deal with an increase in suspected coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, 24 prefectural governments saw no or little change.

JIJI Press