Japanese ambulance crews go through rigorous training comparable to U.S.
By Fred Knapp, Stars and
Stripes
Fred Knapp / Stars and Stripes
A Japanese ambulance makes a run through the streets of Sagamihara City near Camp Zama. |
CAMP ZAMA — Camp Zama’s medical clinic recently changed its
hours, choosing to send more patients to off-base hospitals via Japanese ambulances.
The Yokosuka Naval Base hospital has a similar policy, requiring
residents in some off-base areas to use Japanese ambulances.
Japanese emergency medical personnel are viewed by some Americans as
medically untrained people who merely transport patients.
“I think a lot of that is urban legend,” says Bill Doughty,
spokesman for the Yokosuka hospital.
Before working on a Japanese ambulance, emergency personnel must
finish a six- to 12-month course at a fire academy, then take another 250-hour course in
first aid, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to an official of the Fire and
Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Public Management.
To be a Japanese paramedic — capable of heart defibrillation,
inserting breathing tubes or preparing a patient for an intravenous tube — requires
an additional five years or 2,000 hours experience plus an 835-hour training course, the
official said.
In the United States, requirements vary from state to state.
In Hawaii, it takes a course lasting about six months to become an
emergency medical technician, capable of administering first aid and oxygen.
Then it takes another 1,357 hours of instruction, including 900 in
clinics and ambulances, to become a paramedic capable of more advanced techniques, said
Dr. Salvator Lanzalotti, director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.
Nationwide, there are an estimated 780,000 EMTs, of whom about 50,000
are paramedics, according to the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.
In the United States, a recent survey found that there are about
128,000 paramedics among the 833,000 EMTs and other emergency personnel, according to the
National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.
In Japan, just slightly more than 9,000 of the roughly 56,000
ambulance personnel were paramedics as of April 2000, the ministry official said.
Despite the training that Japanese ambulance personnel may have,
Lanzilloti said he thinks they are more dependent than their American counterparts on
obtaining a doctor’s permission before performing certain procedures.
But the quality of Japanese service has been improving, in the view
of Cmdr. Michael Mahony, officer in charge of the Atsugi Naval Air Facility clinic, which
uses Japanese ambulances off base.
“What we’ve observed is that they provide a competitive
service,” Mahony says.
Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.
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