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. 2014 Dec;38(12):3063-6.
doi: 10.1007/s00268-014-2779-5.

Maintaining a surgery service for local hospitals under the situation of a decreasing number of surgeons in a region of Japan

Joji Watanabe  1 , Hiroaki Saito, Shinji Otani, Masahide Ikeguchi
Affiliations

Maintaining a surgery service for local hospitals under the situation of a decreasing number of surgeons in a region of Japan

Joji Watanabe et al. World J Surg. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

Background: The number of surgeons is decreasing in Japan, leading to the problem of how to maintain a surgery service in local hospitals. We introduce our strategy for supporting ongoing surgical services in regional hospitals by dispatching surgeons temporarily to assist in operations.

Methods: We conducted a questionnaire-based survey at three local hospitals in Tottori and a neighboring prefecture to which surgeons from our department were temporarily dispatched over 5 years from January 2008 to March 2013.

Results: We supported 686 operations at three hospitals over 5 years. The average age of the patients was 72.4 years. Of the diseases treated, 45.1 % were malignant, and 54.9 % were benign. The emergency operation rate was 17.3 %.

Conclusions: Our strategy has produced a continuous surgical service at local hospitals in the face of diminishing numbers of surgeons. We recommend that such a strategy be adopted in other regions in which there are a decreasing number of surgeons and where it is not easy to move patients elsewhere for care.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of surgeons per 100,000 people in Japan. Change in number of surgeons in Tottori Prefecture (solid line) and all-Japan average (dashed line). Adapted from Ref. [1]
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Location of Tottori University Hospital and local hospitals. Location of hospitals with surgery service is limited to those near the university hospital
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Changes in the number of staff at the 1st Department of Surgery, Tottori University. The decreasing surgeons in Japan influence the number of our staff members. There were more than 35 office members in 2000. By 2012, this number had decreased to fewer than 20
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References

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