This information is about a phone consultation service that is offered by Fukuoka Prefecture but, as far as I can see, should be open to people calling from areas to the south of Fukuoka as well. It’s a 24 hour service and a wide variety of languages are supported: English, Chinese, Korea, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tagalog, Nepali, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Russian.
The prefecture is also offering interpreting via telephone to doctors in Fukuoka. I don’t know if a similar service is available here. Here’s the address of a Japanese page with more information:
http://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/contents/ajisapo-callcenter.html
I happened to learn about this from a recent segment in a regional news show. A doctor who was going out of his way to look after people who do not understand Japanese (Dr. Tomoya Hinoki of the Fukuoka Hinoki Clinic) said that the Japanese point system winds up being a disincentive for hospitals and clinics to take the time required to communicate properly through an interpreter. Dr. Hinoki said that he may take as much as three times longer to interact with a patient through an interpreter than he would need to take for a comparable level of care with a patient who is fluent in Japanese. Regardless of that added burden, however, the Japanese point system has a fixed price for each procedure. So, if doctors seem to be in a hurry, part of the problem may be with the system.
In addition, here’s the URL of an English page with more medical information:
http://www.rainbowfia.or.jp/en/living/03.html
It needs to be updated. For example, it doesn’t have information about this new service yet. But it has other numbers and information that may be helpful.
Finally, I’d like to note that I had to work to find this information. The Japanese TV program talked about the service and how they want more foreigners to use it but then neglected to share a phone number or URL. I was able to find information in Japanese about the service on Fukuoka Prefecture’s website but, as you can see, their English “Medical Care and Welfare” information section does not contain an appropriate link:
http://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/somu/multilingual/english/living.html
I wound up searching the web for the phone number I found on the Japanese page, and that took me to the Fukuoka Now article. Not exactly something you can expect of foreign tourists or residents lacking language skills when they are not feeling well!
It seems they are spending lots of money to run this service for people who don’t understand Japanese but only announcing it in English. To it’s credit, Fukuoka Now has made this English announcement, but they had to get the information from a Japanese newspaper announcement. Curiouser and curiouser!
– Kirk
http://www.fukuoka-now.com/en/news/medical-telephone-support-expanded/
