Hospitals/clinics are generally open only during daytime hours on weekdays, and are closed on Saturday afternoons, Sundays and national holidays. Some dental offices operate during nighttime hours and on weekends.
Waiting times may be long in crowded hospitals.
The Kanagawa International Foundation provides multilingual medical symptom questionnaires through the Internet. These are available in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, Persian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Russian, Laotian and Cambodian.
These hospitals can be found on the Internet.
Visit the Night-Time Emergency Medical Center. Hours are from 19:00 to 7:00 the next morning for Internal Medicine/Pediatrics, and from 19:00 to 11:00 the next morning for Ophthalmology/Otorhinolaryngology. For opening hours of other departments, contact the center directly.
Please visit the Night-Time Emergency Dental Center. Hours are from 19:00 to 23:00.
On-duty hospitals of the day receive those with injuries/sudden illness at night, on Sundays and on national holidays. Hours are from 9:00 to 17:00 on Sundays and national holidays, and 13:00 to 17:00 on Saturdays.
For information regarding on-duty hospitals of the day, contact the Emergency Medical Treatment Information Center. Such information is also published in daily morning newspapers.
After treatment at a hospital, medicines can be obtained at the pharmacy outside or inside the hospital by presenting the prescription issued by the doctor. Medicines are relatively inexpensive, because medical insurance covers them. However, make sure to receive full instructions from the doctor, because medications tend not to carry explanations in foreign languages.
Non-prescription medicines are available at drugstores even on Sundays and holidays. They often carry instructions written in English, but they tend to be more costly than prescription medicines because they are not covered by medical insurance.
CiRCLE - SAPPORO is a place where you can receive free HIV testing and counseling. Appointments can be made on the Internet by computer or cell phone.