Japan Press Weekly

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2019 December 18 - 24 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Metropolitan government should fulfill its financial responsibility for public hospitals: JCP Oyama

Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Members’ Group Secretary General Oyama Tomoko on December 18 issued a statement expressing her determination to work even harder, jointly with concerned citizens, to push the governor to maintain public support for metropolitan hospitals.

In the Metropolitan Assembly’s regular session which closed on this day, Governor Koike Yuriko proposed a policy of transforming metropolitan hospitals into for-profit independent administrative institutions. The proposal was made evidently with the aim of evading the Tokyo government’s fiscal responsibility for public hospitals.

Oyama in her statement pointed out that the governor announced the policy without taking into proper account the current situation of public hospitals across Japan after their conversion into independent administrative organs. These hospitals’ management policy putting efficiency and productivity first has deprived people of easy access to quality medical care.

Furthermore, Oyama cited that the JCP questioning revealed that even a Tokyo government official in charge of metropolitan hospital operations had no information about the transformation plan before the governor’s announcement was made. Oyama criticized the governor for deciding on the plan behind closed doors.

Oyama demanded that Governor Koike withdraw her plan to turn metropolitan hospitals into for-profit organs and said that the JCP will make its utmost effort to press the Tokyo government to increase its support for metropolitan hospitals instead of abandoning its financial responsibility.

Past related article:
> Tokyo JCP urges governor to retract policy of cutting off funds for metropolitan hospitals [June 21, 2019]