Not enough nurses and health workers

October 3, 2012

Fukushima faces serious shortage of nurses after nuclear disaster

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121003p2a00m0na015000c.html

Fukushima Prefecture faces a serious shortage of nurses and health workers, due largely to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it has emerged.

The Fukushima Nursing Association said that as of the end of August, the number of unfilled jobs was 4.41 times higher than the number of applicants. The number of young people receiving checkups is expected to increase in line with the Oct. 1 launch of a system providing free medical care to people aged 18 or under, and the association remains concerned about the situation, which could hinder health checks, saying a shortage of people in the medical profession could impede local restoration efforts.

Association officials said that in February 2011, the month before the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture, there were 216 applications for 366 jobs, representing a job opening-to-application ratio of 1.69.

At the end of August this year, there were 768 job openings -- a huge increase compared with before the disaster -- while the number of applicants fell to 174, lifting the ratio to 4.41

Since the disaster, the number of job applicants has remained steady, at about 160 to 170 people a month, but the number of job openings has continued to increase. The biggest reason for this is that nurses with children have evacuated out of the prefecture due to fears about the effects of radiation. And since the disaster, parties outside the prefecture have lured away many nurses and other medical workers.

According to the Fukushima Prefectural Government, the number of nurses and other workers at hospitals in the prefecture totaled 14,556 on March 1, 2011, shortly before the disaster. But on March 1 this year, the figure stood at 14,089.

Since the number of patients has increased as people's evacuation period is prolonged, medical staff have been overworked, and it is said there has been no end to the departure of workers.

Housing has also proved a problem. One nurse who wanted to return from Tokyo to work in the Fukushima Prefecture city of Iwaki was told that there was a waiting list of 200 people for an apartment, so she gave up on returning to work.

The Fukushima Nursing Association sought nurses and other medical workers from around the nation and 36 applied, but due to a lack of housing and other problems, only seven have been able to start working.

The disaster-hit prefectures of Iwate and Miyagi have also faced shortages of medical workers, but the situation has been particularly bad in Fukushima Prefecture due to the nuclear disaster, and it is expected to continue for a long time.

"The shortage of regular nurses and health nurses was an issue even before the disaster, but since the nuclear disaster, the situation has gotten unusually serious," said Midori Suzuki, a senior director of the Fukushima Nursing Association. "I want the government to widen its awareness of what is hindering restoration."