October 11, 2015

Akahata Sunday edition

The revelation of a series of fatal falls at a private nursing-care home for the aged has raised a question about whether municipal supervision of such facilities is really sufficient.

Last month, it came to light that three elderly persons living in a private nursing home in Kanagawa’s Kawasaki City separately fell to death from the balconies of their rooms in November and December 2014. In addition, one resident in March this year died while taking a bath. In May, a staff member of the facility was arrested on suspicion of stealing money from residents. Another incident occurred in July: one of the residents who needs assistance eating and using the toilet was neglected for two days.

The nursing home is operated by major care provider Message Co., which has many homes around the country and is infamous for its high staff turnover rate. For example, at its 16 facilities in Nagoya City the staff turnover rate was 40% in 2013, while the national average is 16.6%.

The Kawasaki City government, which is in position to supervise private care facilities for the elderly, failed to quickly respond to this series of fatal accidents. In December last year, the city government merely instructed the facility operator to take measures to prevent another fatal fall and did not conduct an on-sight inspection until June.

Such a slow response reflects the fact that the city government division in charge is understaffed.

City officials say that only two staff members supervise 239 nursing facilities run by the private sector in the city. The two inspect around 20 sites a year, which means that each site undergoes a city inspection less than once in ten years on average. It is up to each municipality how often it conducts such an inspection, as laws do not specify how often facilities need to be inspected.

Commenting on this issue, a veteran nurse who worked for private nursing homes said that the administrative supervision needs improvements, adding that in the first place, primary responsibility of providing care for the aged should be placed on the national government and not private companies.