No.107 Request Activities for Financial Support to the City Hospital

Approximately 60% of the infectious disease beds in designated medical institutions in our country are provided by municipal hospitals, which also play a significant role in the current COVID-19 situation.

According to the results of a survey conducted by the National Association of Municipal Hospitals on member hospitals, it has been revealed that patients with COVID-19 are primarily accepted at large hospitals with a well-established medical care system, while medium and mild cases, including suspected patients, are also being accepted at small and medium-sized hospitals. Furthermore, many municipal hospitals that have accepted COVID-19 patients are currently suffering from deteriorating revenues.

So far, the government has tripled the medical fees for hospitals accepting severe and moderate patients, and in the second supplementary budget, it has expanded the "COVID-19 Emergency Comprehensive Support Grant," providing a total of 2.237 trillion yen. Additionally, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has approved the issuance of "Special Revenue Reduction Corporate Bonds" as financial support for local public enterprises facing revenue declines.

However, despite these measures, it is still not sufficient to compensate for the loss of income from April to June of 2020.

Municipal hospitals have been fulfilling their mission in response to the spread of COVID-19, which can be considered a national crisis, and we believe that further financial support is necessary to ensure they do not collapse during this pandemic.

This year, I am serving as the chairman of the "San Tama Island Public Hospital Management Council," which consists of 9 public hospitals. On May 25, 2020, together with the vice chairman, Mayor Hamamura of Ome City, who is the founder of the Ome City General Hospital, we requested the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Governor of Tokyo for new grants and subsidies, as well as support through an increase in existing subsidy systems. However, unfortunately, there have been no clear results so far.

In August 2020, multiple factions of the city council submitted requests with the same intent to the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the Governor of Tokyo through the Tokyo Metropolitan Headquarters.

Currently, in order to continue expanding this request activity, we have begun efforts to build a cooperative system with mayors from various regions, not just Tokyo.
This is an urgent request for the national budget within the fiscal year, but it is difficult to gather supporters nationwide in a short period of time. Therefore, I called for participation in a LINE group of mayors who are also struggling with similar revenue declines, and I received supportive opinions and expressions of participation in the request activity from mayors and town mayors who are the founders of City Hospitals.

In addition to the direct impact of accepting COVID-19 patients, considering the indirect impact of a decrease in general patients due to the postponement of medical consultations, it is expected that the reduction in revenue will continue for some time. This reduction in revenue is becoming a situation that cannot be supported solely by the municipalities that established the facilities, and if this continues, there is a fear that public hospitals will collapse nationwide.

Therefore, we will request the government for new financial support to broadly compensate for the revenue decrease, based on the previous year's financial results, in collaboration with supportive mayors and local members of the National Diet who support this request activity.

In Inagi City, we reconfirm that the response to infectious diseases will be a long-term effort, and we are prioritizing the securing of regional medical care. We ask all citizens to cooperate with infection prevention measures such as maintaining physical distance, wearing masks, washing hands, and gargling.