Japan Press Weekly

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2011 November 16 - 22 [WELFARE]

Doctors march calling for revival of medical services

About 2,500 doctors, dentists and other medical staff members marched in demonstration on the streets of the Ginza in Tokyo, calling for the restoration of endangered medical services. This is the first large-scale demonstration by doctors since 1961.

Before the parade, they had a rally at the Hibiya Amphitheater, and Ueyama Naoto, organizing committee general secretary and representative of the national union of doctors, reported that the undermining of medical services for many years by a national policy of squeezing medical costs and the number of doctors is still proceeding.

He also warned that the system of universal medical insurance is endangered because the mixed system of insured and non-insured medical services will be completely liberalized under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement.

Yamanome Tatsumi, vice director of the Emergency Center of the Iwate Prefectural Ofunato Hospital, speaking on behalf of the three quake-hit prefectures, said, “The disaster areas are still like battlegrounds where the lives of many medical staff have been lost. I call for an increase in support for areas where people have difficulties gaining access to medical services.”

Doctors from a hospital in Miyagi and a cooperative clinic reported on their local activities in opposition to Japan’s entry into the TPP, the biggest obstacle to reconstruction.

Dentists, orthopedists, and pediatricians from many localities talked of the pressing needs they face on a daily basis.

Koike Akira, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission chair, spoke in solidarity, calling for a united effort to defend the universal health insurance system.