Last night a gangster came to my hospital because of a self-inflicted injury. He chopped off his left little finger with something. I didn't ask him the real reason, but I sometimes hear that when gangsters make a mistake, they'll cut their fingers as taking responsibility for their mistake. I thought this case would be like that. In such a self-inflicted case, I have to call the police by the rules of the Medical Practitioners' Law.
However, he insisited that the cause of injury was his mistake. He said that when he shut the window he got injured by the steel sash of the window. He denied a self-inflicted wound. He seemed to want to be away from the police. There was a big difference between the status of injury and his explanation but I decided to take his explanation. My hospital didn't want to have anything to do with such people and wanted him to go back as promptly as possible. My boss gave him a plastic operation of the cut end of his finger. After everything was done, he refused to pay the treatment fee. He had no money, and he said he would be back with money the next day. On the next day, he didn't show up. Needless to say, his name, address and phone number which he signed on the paper at the front counter of my hospital was false. He wasn't going to pay from the very beginning.
According to the Medical Practitioners' Law, hospitals in Japan must not refuse medical treatment due to the lack of treatment fee. Medical staff members must take care of people who come to hospital for some treatments. It's ok if a patient is really in serious financial trouble. But some people use this law in an underhanded way, just not wanting to pay.
The number of such people is increasing. The treatment fee for such convinced criminals is charged on hospitals now. The courtesy of hospitals has limitations.
Please do something Mr.Mayor!
(Vocabulary)
inflict 〈苦痛・損害など〉 を与える, もたらす
underhanded 〈取引・政治活動などが〉 不正な, 汚い
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