Junior doctor was 'worked to death'
A Japanese court has ordered a hospital to pay compensation to the parents of a junior doctor who was apparently worked to death.
The Kansai Medical University Hospital in Osaka will have to pay £54,000 to the parents of Hirohito Mori in compensation and unpaid wages.
Dr Mori, 26, died of heart failure two and half months after he began an internship at the private hospital.
The ruling comes amid a number of court cases in which the families of workers suspected of having been worked to death - a phenomenon called karoshi in Japanese - sue companies for compensation.
Today’s decision was the first in which a hospital has been ordered to pay compensation and officials said it may spark wide-ranging changes in the status of young medical school graduates.
Katsuyuki Awamura, a Health Ministry official, said the ruling will likely encourage a ministry panel studying the working conditions of junior doctors to improve their work environment.
‘‘It is necessary to provide more security for interns so they can support themselves,’’ Awamura said.
Mori was among 120 interns at Kansai Medical who received only £350 a month in the form of a ‘‘scholarship.’’
He worked 12 hour shifts, and senior interns regularly forced him to take care of chores outside his normal work hours and on his days off, the court said.
Japan has no law that defines the status of junior doctors, whether they are wage earners or trainees.
To get extra income, most work part-time at affiliated hospitals after work or on weekends.
