"Japan's doctors and nurses are being subjected to incredible and increasing amounts of violence at the hands of patients and their families," a reporter for a national daily tells Shukan Taishu (6/9).

Indeed, Japan's hospitals are in dire straits. The All Japan Hospital Association noted that last year there were 6,882 reported cases of patient violence toward medical practitioners, and 52 percent of the 1,106 hospitals that took part in the association's survey record at least one incidence of abuse of medical staff.

The majority of cases involved psychological abuse, but physical abuse and sexual harassment were also common. What's more, these are only reported cases, of which just 5.8 percent of these incidents were passed on to the police.

"Hospitals are a kind of service sector business. There's a tendency to try and deal with matters in-house rather than allow rumors to start spreading," the hack says.

Medical journalist Shuji Maki says the profession has nobody to blame but itself.

"Behind the increasing violence are problems like poor explanations to patients and medical malpractice. This creates an awareness gap between patients and practitioners, which not only leads to an increase in violence, but also encourages a great amount of litigation as well," Maki tells Shukan Taishu.

Doctors, nurses and interns' complaints of horror patients read like a litany of terror. One patient with a minor injury seeking after-hours treatment pelted a doctor with a can of soda and broke his cheekbone by slugging him in the face, merely because he was asked to come back the following day. Another hurled a vase at a nurse, and a group of relatives made to wait too long started swinging around intravenous drips in protest.

Sexual harassment is also rife, with many patients taking the opportunity of being examined to do a bit of examining themselves as their hands wander over female nurses' bodies. At least one nurse complained of a patient asking her to become his contracted lover following his discharge.

While it's common for hospitals overseas to have concrete policies in place to deal with physically intimidating patients, it's not quite the way things work in Japan yet.

"Some hospitals in Japan have started employing security guards to combat violent patients," a writer for a medical journal tells the men's weekly. "The biggest problem is that hospitals are chronically short-staffed. It's a fact that doctors or nurses have to deal with every problem they come up against by themselves."

The writer warns that Japan's medical world is about to reach a point of no return.

"The work is poorly paid, has long hours and if patients are going to be violent, the medical profession is going to struggle even more to attract workers," the writer tells Shukan Taishu. "Japan is suffering from a low birthrate as it is, so if patients suffer because young people don't want to become doctors or nurses anymore, then they've got nobody else to blame but themselves." (By Ryann Connell)