G20 Summit and emergency medical services in Osaka, Japan.

To assess the impact of the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy held in Osaka City, Japan (G20 Osaka Summit) on the emergency medical services (EMS) system. This study used the ORION database with its population-based registry of emergency patients comprising both ambulance and in-hospital records in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The G20 Osaka Summit was held in Osaka City from 28 to 29 June, 2019. Changes in the EMS system and traffic regulations in Osaka were made during the period from 27 to 30 June, but we focused on the two summit days as the G20 period. The control periods comprised the same calendar days 1 week before and 1 week after the G20 period. We evaluated differences in the number of emergency transports, difficulties in obtaining hospital acceptance of patients, deaths among hospitalized emergency patients, and ambulance transport times between the two periods. In total, 2,590 cases in the G20 period and 5,152 cases in the control periods were registered. The relative risk of cases during the G20 versus control periods was 1.01 (0.96-1.05). Significant decreases were observed in the number of traffic accidents as ambulance calls (relative risk = 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.64-0.91). There were no significant differences in difficulties in obtaining hospital acceptance or deaths among hospitalized emergency patients between the G20 and control periods. In addition, ambulance transport times during the G20 period were not significantly longer than those in the control periods. The G20 Osaka Summit did not adversely impact the provision of emergency medical care in the Osaka area.

Informations de copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Acute Medicine & Surgery published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Association for Acute Medicine.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Approval of the research protocol: The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Osaka University as the corresponding institution (No. 15003). Informed consent: The requirement for informed consent of patients was waived. Registry and the registration no. of the study/trial: N/A. Animal studies: N/A. Conflict of interest: None.