Tokyo Metropolitan Out of Hours Psychiatric Emergency Care Programme
Matsuzawa Hospital has an emergency department with 34 beds that accepts psychiatric emergency cases 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It saw more than 2,000 patients in 2013, and about 900 of them were admitted to the ward. The catchment area of Matsuzawa Hospital’s emergency service is about one-thirds of the Tokyo metropolitan area, but difficult cases and all foreigners are sent to Matsuzawa Hospital even if the incidents happen out of our catchment area.
Our hospital is responsible for Block 3, which covers Shinjuku-ku, Setagaya-ku, Suginami-ku, Nakano-ku, Shibuya-ku, Meguro-ku, Shinagawa-ku, Ota-ku and the Islands.
In case of out-of-hours (from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. on weekdays and 24 hours on weekends and holidays) psychiatric emergency, call Tokyo Metropolitan Health Information Center, also known as “Himawari”(tel: 03-5272-0303). They triage patients over the phone.
When the person is at risk to self or others out of hours, the police will take him/her into custody and report him/her to this center. If the center decide that the person needs psychiatric emergent care, then he/she will be brought to one of the four hospitals.
Inpatient’s Treatment
Patients admitted to hospital for emergency involuntary hospitalization will be re-examined within 72 hours and it will be decided if involuntary hospitalization is necessary.
Majority of patients of involuntary hospitalization and hospitalization for medical care and protection will be transferred to other hospitals on the following day or later. Patients who are difficult to treat, for example due physical complications, will continue to receive care at our Hospital.