ACCJ Sponsors Study into EMS Needs in Post-Nuclear Evacuation Areas
Understanding needs for emergency medical care is important to promote restoration work in areas affected by nuclear disasters. Most of the 72 000 residents in the Futaba District were forced to evacuate after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident.
Six hospitals existed in the district predisaster, but 5 hospitals were pushed into closure post-disaster, and Takano Hospital (Hirono Town) was the only hospital that continuously operated after the disaster, despite governmental evacuation orders. On March 31, 2012, the evacuation order was lifted in Hirono Town, and a restoration process progressed around the hospital thereafter.
However, it took more than 8 years before another hospital started its operation in Futaba District, and little is known about extents and types of emergency medical care needs that the hospital was required to handle in the long-term aftermath of the disaster. The objectives of this study were to elucidate temporal trends and characteristics of the patients transferred by the local emergency medical services (EMS) to a remaining hospital in the district in the long-term aftermath of the nuclear disaster.
