95,000 doctors and nurses will be temps at welfare services facilities

The government in a cabinet meeting on March 25 adopted an ordinance allowing welfare services facilities to accept doctors and nurses on temporary staffing contracts.

Through the House of Councilors Health, Labor, and Welfare Committee discussions on the day, it has been revealed that the government plans to have 41,500 doctors and 53,500 nurses and student nurses, a total of over 95,000 medical workers work on lease contracts at nursing homes for bedridden elderly, facilities for the handicapped, and child care centers.

Koike Akira, Japanese Communist Party Upper House member in the committee, pointed out that doctors, nurses, and trade unions are concerned about the supposed lack of consultation in diagnosis and the ambiguity concerning the responsibility for medical accidents under leased labor.

Koike stated, "This is not a matter to be decided by the cabinet alone. The Diet must discuss it."

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Sakaguchi Chikara replied, "Contingent labor has its merits. A government ordinance is sufficient." (end)