2 days ago
Gifu hospitals allow inpatients to stay with their dogs for healing
A patient is allowed to stay in this sickroom in Kaizu, Gifu Prefecture, seen here on April 10, with a pet animal. (Yoshinobu Matsunaga)
GIFU--Two hospitals in this central Japan prefecture believe that inpatients having their beloved dogs nearby could stabilize their physical and mental state and accelerate their recovery.
So, starting from April, Matsunami General Hospital in Kasamatsu, Gifu Prefecture, and the Kaizu Medical Association Hospital in Kaizu, also in the prefecture, put this belief into practice.
Matsunami hospital had the ground floor of a detached house on its premises, which serves as a lodging facility for patients' family members, refurbished to house a 'Your Pet in Hospital' center for keeping pet animals.
Inpatients who have entrusted their dogs with the center are allowed to visit their pets any number of times they like while they are in the hospital.
The center, equipped with five cages, can keep up to five large dogs or 10 small canines.
The center is permanently staffed with a certified veterinary nurse for companion animals, who is tasked with feeding the pets and cleaning up their feces.
There is also a 20-square-meter playground inside the center.
Only dogs are allowed for the time being. The rate varies, depending on the animal's size, between 3,500 yen and 5,300 yen ($24-$37), excluding tax, for an overnight stay.
Eligible for the services are those who have no means for having their pets looked after while they are in hospital. That description envisages patients in the acute stage of stomach cancer or other diseases and patients undergoing planned medical treatment, including for diabetes.
Once the acute care or other treatment is concluded and the condition has stabilized, the patients are subsequently transferred to a new "With Pet Ward,' which has been set up at the Kaizu Medical Association Hospital.
Sickrooms for the patients with pets have been set up on the third floor. Each sickroom has a bed and a cage so the patients can continue to look after their pets while they undergo treatment.
Different pedestrian flow paths have been designed for patients in the ward and the other patients. Dogs and their owners staying in the ward use emergency stairs to go into and out of the ward.
A 440-square-meter dog run has been created outdoors in consideration of the canines' health.
Officials plan to gradually increase the number of sickrooms in the ward, which started with five beds.
'A medical issue has been raised about curable patients who miss opportunities to recover because of their pets,' said Kazutoshi Aizawa, an official in the management and planning department with Matsunami General Hospital. 'Being with a pet could have healing effects. We hope our measure will help shorten hospitalization stays and quicken social rehabilitation.'
Officials of Sosai Kosei Kai, a social medical corporation that operates Matsunami hospital, said that a craze for pet animals, which was induced partly by the COVID-19 pandemic, led more people living alone to want to keep their pets with them.
Some patients have refused to be hospitalized, saying they are too concerned about their pets to be away from home. That has led to cases of delayed treatment and aggravated conditions, which emerged as a problem for the hospitals.
