Japan Press Weekly

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2022 August 10 - 16 [POLITICS]

70% of nursing-care facility operators oppose Kishida gov’t move to increase care workers’ workloads

Akahata on August 13 learned that 70% of special nursing-care home operators in Tokyo oppose the Kishida government’s move to adversely revise the national standards for the staffing of nursing-care homes. This was shown in the results of a survey by the Tokyo Council of Social Welfare elderly welfare section.

The Kishida government seeks to revise the national standards to increase the number of home residents assigned to one care worker from the current three to four with the utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) equipment, such as the use of nursing-care assistant robots.

According to the survey which was conducted between March and April, 85.7% of respondents said that it is difficult to maintain the quality of nursing-care services under the current national standards. In these facilities, one care worker took care of 2.01 elderly people on average.

In the survey, 68% expressed opposition to the Kishida government move while only 6% was in favor. As the reason for their opposition, 60% cited that an increase in the number of nursing facility residents per caregiver will make it difficult to secure residents’ safety.

In the survey, asked about whether to provide the same quality of services with the use of ICT devices under the national standards for staffing, 92% answered it is impossible. Reasons they cited included, “It is difficult for one care worker to respond to multiple nurse calls simultaneously," and "The burden of duties per worker will become heavier.”

A council official pointed out that the survey results indicated that even under the current national standards, nursing-care facility operators are struggling to provide quality services, and added that in order to guarantee facility residents a safe living environment, it is necessary to increase the government-set required number of care workers.