There is a "Cruising" Ambulance in Osaka city - You can't stop it even if you raise your hand, how can you get on it?

I live in Osaka city, and even if I travel by taxi, it is often a short distance. Therefore, I often avoid taxis that are parked at taxi stands and catch cruising taxis. In fact, "cruising ambulances" are also running in Osaka city (there may be "cruising ambulances" in cities other than Osaka, but the author has confirmed the existence of "cruising ambulances" only in Osaka city).

If you are from abroad:

There are few cruising taxis in Tokyo these days. Cruising taxis are freely available only in local cities such as Osaka.

However, the "cruising ambulance" will not stop even if you raise your hand. So if you happen to have a car accident there, will the "cruising ambulance" stop to save you? The answer is probably "No". This is because the driver of the "cruising ambulance" is not running on the assumption that he may encounter a traffic accident site.

Many people may think, "Well, ambulance drivers who ignore when they encounter the scene of an accident are negligent in their duties." However, the "cruising ambulance" does not belong to the fire department in the first place. Drivers and crew are not civil servants.

A “cruising ambulance” is an ambulance that belongs to a particular private hospital. However, even though hospitals often own their own ambulances, not many hospitals operate their ambulances as “cruising ambulances”. If you read this continuation, you will understand why.

If you are clearly ill, your consciousness is stunned, you speak unintelligible words, or you are completely unconscious, they will put you on a stretcher and take you to the hospital. It is by no means a philanthropic activity that hospitals operating "cruising ambulances" are accommodating patients who have fallen over in this way.

It's a solid business. The detained patient does not need to have health insurance. The hospitalization fee and treatment fee for the patient who has fallen over will be paid by the local government (in Osaka city, of course, it will be Osaka city). Since the local government will pay the examination fee, the detained patients will undergo various examinations.

This is one of the causes of the infamous Osaka city's deficit finance, but it is not well reported. The medical association may or may not be putting pressure on the press.

Patients who are accommodated while lying down on the street in this way are called "Koro-san" in field terms. There may not be many hospitals that accept Koro-san, but they are scattered throughout Osaka City. Some hospitals specialize in Koro-san, while others accept both general patients and Koro-san (it seems that the latter hospitals mainly operate "cruising ambulances". In the case of Koro-san specialty hospitals, it seems that patients are often transported by ambulances from the fire department).

Some hospitals name him or her "[lastname], [serialnumber] Ro" if they don't know the identity of an unconscious Koro-san. The name of the hospital is entered in place of [lastname]. For example, if he or she is the 50th ("Goju" in Japanese)in a "Splendid" hospital, he or she is named "Splendid, Goju Ro". The [serialnumber] part is a kind of serial number. Next time when another unconscious & unidentified [Koro-san is brought in, he or she will be named "[lastname], [next-serialnumber] Ro". For example, the real name of former major leaguer Ichiro is "Suzuki, Ichiro". Ichiro means that the [serialnumber] in "[serialnumber] Ro" is 1 (“Ichi” in Japanese).

Discovered unconscious on the street, Koro-san are connected to a life support system in the hospital room and continue to sleep unknowingly when they will wake up. The longer they sleep, the more money they will receive from the municipality. In other words, the citizen's blood tax is poured indefinitely.

However, these hospitals should not be categorized as scams. After losing the place where Koro-san live, it is absolutely necessary to save ther life as they become weak on the street. However, I haven't seen any detailed information in the text, perhaps because it is taboo to touch these facts. I covered this story in Japanese more than 10 years ago, but was disturbed by suspicious people. So now I'm telling this story in English. No matter where you look on the web, you won't find similar information, except for my Japanse blog.

However, any medical professional who has traveled around Osaka should know this story. In fact, the story I heard directly from such medical professionals is the basis of this article.

As mentioned above, there are cases of unconsciousness, but in reality, many of the hospitalized Koro-san are getting better and eventually being discharged. After recovering to some extent in the hospital room, many patients become restless,wanting to return to their original "free environment."

A long time ago, a subordinate of a friend who works for a listed company was hit by a car and taken to a hospital. The destination hospital was the one that accepted Koro-san and others. And, as expected, the subordinate was put in a shared room with Koro-san and others. He was conscious, but had a complex fracture in his leg.

If you think in common sense, this young man, who is a first-class company employee, may feel uncomfortable with the appearance of the patients around him and appeal for a transfer. However, he also had the experience of wandering around developing countries around the world, and he completely blended into the atmosphere. When a visitor recommended a transfer, he stubbornly said, "I like this place." It is said that he spent about a month and a half until his feet healed happily in the hospital room with a strange atmosphere, just like "To every bird, his own nest is beautiful."