No.107 Activities to request financial support to municipal hospitals

Approximately 60% of the infectious disease beds at designated medical institutions for infectious diseases in Japan are held by municipal hospitals, and they are also playing a major role in the fight against the new coronavirus infection.
According to the results of a survey conducted by the National Local Government Hospital Association among member hospitals, patients infected with the new coronavirus are mainly accepted at large hospitals with well-equipped medical care provision systems, and patients with moderate and mild symptoms, including suspected patients, are accepted. It has become clear that small and medium-sized hospitals are also accepting patients. And many local government hospitals that have accepted COVID-19 patients are currently suffering from deteriorating profits.
To date, the government has tripled the medical fees for hospitals that accept patients with severe and moderate symptoms, and expanded the "New Coronavirus Infection Emergency Comprehensive Support Subsidy" in the second supplementary budget, resulting in a total of 2. We have provided 237 billion yen. Additionally, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications allows local public enterprises to issue ``Special Revenue Reduction Countermeasure Corporate Bonds'' as a means of funding for measures to reduce revenue.
However, despite these measures, it is still not enough to even compensate for the lost revenue from April to June 2020.
Municipal hospitals have been fulfilling their mission in response to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, which can be called a national crisis, and we believe that further financial support is necessary to prevent them from collapsing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
This year, I am serving as the chairman of the Mitama Island Public Hospital Management Council, which is comprised of nine public hospitals, and on May 25, 2020, I am serving as the vice chairman of Ome Hamanaka Ome, the founder of Ome City General Hospital. Together with the mayor, we have requested support from the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Governor of Tokyo by issuing new grants and subsidies and increasing existing subsidy systems. But unfortunately, there have been no clear results so far.
Subsequently, in August 2020, multiple factions of the City Council submitted requests to the same effect to the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the Governor of Tokyo through the Tokyo Headquarters.
Currently, in order to expand and continue this request, we are starting to work to build a joint struggle system not only with Tokyo but also with the leaders of various regions.
This is a request for the national budget for the year, so it is urgent, but it is difficult to gather supporters nationwide in a short period of time. Therefore, I appealed to the mayor's volunteer LINE group, which I am a member of, and received comments from mayors and mayors who are owners of public hospitals who are suffering from similar declines in revenue, and expressed their support and participation in the request.
Considering not only the direct impact of accepting new coronavirus patients, but also the indirect impact of a decline in the number of general patients due to refraining from medical treatment, the decline in revenue is expected to continue for some time. These declines in revenue are becoming more than enough for local governments to support by themselves, and if things continue like this, there is a risk that public hospitals will go under and the situation will spread across the country.
Therefore, based on the previous fiscal year's financial results, we are requesting the government to provide new financial support that will widely compensate for the decrease in revenue, working together with supporting leaders and local Diet members who support this request. We will continue to.
Inagi City reaffirms that it will be a long process to respond to infectious diseases, and is prioritizing securing local medical care. We once again ask all citizens to cooperate with infectious disease prevention measures such as maintaining physical distance, wearing masks, washing hands, and gargling.