Japan Press Weekly

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2012 October 31 - November 6 [WELFARE]

Ex-Hansen’s disease patients need more sanatorium staff

About 450 former Hansen’s disease patients and their supporters on November 5 met together in Tokyo to discuss the deteriorating situations at each sanatorium partly due to the government policy of reducing the number of public workers.

They decided to request the government to exclude national sanatoria workers from the ongoing downsizing targets and increase the number of nurses and nursing-care staff working for national sanatoria for former Hansen’s disease patients.

As of July, 2,096 former patients live in 13 national leprosy sanatoria. They are over 82 years of age on average. Despite the fact that the disabilities of the residents become more serious over time and thus require more care, manpower in the sanatoria continues to decline.

Ko Michihiro, the leader of the National Hansen’s Disease Sanatoria Residents’ Association, reported on the actual situation of all the 13 national sanatoria, saying that 22% of former patients now develop dementia, 29% need one-to-one nursing care, and 26% are diapered.

Although the number of residents in need of nursing care is expected to rise, the government is planning to cut nursing care staff.

Ko complained that this move is affecting the quality of assisted meals, bathing, and assisted care for the disabled, and that deaths from aspiration pneumonia are on the increase, threatening the lives and dignity of the individuals.

The government once forcibly isolated leprosy patients and sacrificed many to pain and suffering due to the eradication policy. The longtime segregation policy was, however, condemned as unconstitutional in court in 2001, followed by the 2008 enactment of the fundamental law on Hansen’s disease aiming at promoting medical, nursing, and other care services for the former patients.

Ko said, “The law is there but it’s not being implemented.”

A doctor from the national sanatorium Okukomyoen in Okayama and a nurse from the national sanatorium Matsuoka Hoyoen in Aomori stressed the need to drastically increase the number of nursing care workers so that the demented residents can live with dignity.

Kodama Yuji from the national sanatorium Kuryu Rakusen’en in Gunma complained, “I can have a bath only a few days a week on both hot and cold days because nursing care workers are short-handed.”