Maintaining a Surgery Service for Local Hospitals Under the Situation of a Decreasing Number of Surgeons in a Region of Japan

BACKGROUND: The number of surgeons is decreasing in Japan, leading to the problem of how to maintain a surgery service in local hospitals. We introduce our strategy for supporting ongoing surgical services in regional hospitals by dispatching surgeons temporarily to assist in operations. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire-based survey at three local hospitals in Tottori and a neighboring prefecture to which surgeons from our department were temporarily dispatched over 5 years from January 2008 to March 2013. RESULTS: We supported 686 operations at three hospitals over 5 years. The average age of the patients was 72.4 years. Of the diseases treated, 45.1 % were malignant, and 54.9 % were benign. The emergency operation rate was 17.3 %. CONCLUSIONS: Our strategy has produced a continuous surgical service at local hospitals in the face of diminishing numbers of surgeons. We recommend that such a strategy be adopted in other regions in which there are a decreasing number of surgeons and where it is not easy to move patients elsewhere for care.