KOBE

A 69-year-old man injured in a traffic accident in Hyogo Prefecture died last month after being refused admission by 14 hospitals, a local fire department said Wednesday, revealing yet another case indicating Japans emergency medical care is in a grave situation.

The man collided with a motorcycle when he was riding a bicycle in Itami at around 10:15 p.m. on Jan 20. After arriving at the scene five minutes later, rescue workers provided first aid while seeking a hospital for about one hour.

But 14 hospitals in Hyogo and neighboring Osaka prefectures rejected his admission, citing a lack of specialist doctors or empty beds, according to the department.

The man was eventually taken to one of the 14 hospitals at around 11:30 p.m. that day, where his condition abruptly deteriorated. The hospital in Itami tried to transfer him for better treatment but the call was rejected by two hospitals.

He was already in extremely critical condition and unable to be moved when a third accepted the request. He eventually died of hemorrhagic shock three hours after the accident.

The 29-year-old motorcycle rider, meanwhile, was taken to a university hospital in Nishinomiya, Hyogo, as soon as the rescue workers determined he appeared to have suffered more severe injuries.

In December 2007, the Hyogo prefectural government instructed local municipalities to have their fire department headquarters work to find a hospital to accept urgent patients if paramedics cannot find one after 30 minutes.

On the accident in question, an Itami fire department official said, There were four other emergency calls in the same time frame of that night and as a result, we were unable to find a hospital (for the dead man).

It remains unclear, meanwhile, whether the death of the man was associated with the delay in his transfer, the department said.

The incident is the latest of a growing number of similar cases in Japan in which hospitals and medical institutions have declined to accept patients in need of emergency treatment, citing a lack of medical staff available or proper equipment and facilities.