No.118 Submission of a request from the mayors of Hino, Tama, and Inagi to the Governor of Tokyo

Due to the spread of the Delta strain, the fifth wave of infection began in mid-July 2021 in Tokyo, with new infections breaking records every day. Although the numbers seem to have peaked around mid-August 2021, the number of new infections has remained high since then, and by the end of August 2021, even moderately ill patients who would normally require hospitalization were increasing. I was forced to receive medical treatment at home.
Since last year, the work related to the new coronavirus infection has been increasing, but the Tokyo public health centers that are supposed to handle the situation are under staffing pressure, and the medical institutions that are supposed to accept hospitalizations are also facing a strain on staffing and facility equipment. .
In order to overcome this crisis, on August 31, 2021, Mayor Hino, Mayor Tama, and Mayor Inagi visited Director-General Yoshimura of Health and Welfare Yoshimura at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to submit a written request to Governor Koike jointly signed by Mayor Hino, Mayor Tama, and Mayor Inagi.
The requests are (1) to promptly expand the staffing system of public health centers and promote the sharing of information on infected people between public health centers and each city within their jurisdiction; (2) to proceed with the development of temporary medical facilities; (3) ) Three points are that the Tokyo metropolitan government should be actively involved in coordinating hospitalization and transferring patients during the recovery period.
In explaining the purpose of my request, I emphasized two of these points.
Regarding (1), the Tokyo metropolitan government has so far maintained that personal information of infected persons cannot be disclosed due to the Personal Information Protection Act. However, this new coronavirus infection is said to be on a disaster level since last year. If it is to protect the lives of victims in the event of a disaster, disclosure should be possible without the consent of the victims. In order to provide early support to citizens receiving home treatment, strengthen monitoring, and prevent infected people living alone from dying alone, the name and address of those receiving home treatment will be shared with public health centers. I requested that you do so.
Regarding (2), we are requesting a temporary medical facility to eliminate home treatment. There are only a limited number of medical institutions in the city that can provide home-visit treatment and house calls, and as the number of people receiving home treatment increases, they are gradually approaching their limits. In order to provide care with a limited number of medical personnel, we have changed our approach to providing medical care during normal times for infectious disease control, which is basically managed in private rooms, and are now using a large room system, a so-called field hospital-like accommodation facility, as a temporary response in times of disaster. I requested that they be secured.
In both cases, there was no immediate answer on the spot, but a week later I received a direct phone call from the executive staff member in charge, who informed me that they would be willing to share information with the public health center as I had requested. I did.
This employee was an acquaintance of mine from my previous department, and he fully understood our municipality's position. It seems that he approached the Tokyo governor directly, and the governor responded, ``It would be best to share that.''
In the future, by having both the public health center and city hall understand which citizens are eligible, the city will be able to provide early support in cases where the public health center is unable to respond.
This information sharing may be just a small part of the issues that need to be improved in cooperation with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, but we will overcome the barriers of systems and organizations one by one to ensure the safety and security of our citizens.