If the situation that is developing in many Japanese hospitals is not yet a national emergency, it soon will be. The frequency with which medication errors and other medical accidents are occurring has many people legitimately concerned about undergoing a hospital stay. Those fears can only be heightened by the news that, on average, some patients in every large hospital in the Tokyo metropolitan area receive the wrong medication on an almost daily basis. The mistakes occur most often on the first day of hospitalization -- and nurses commit most of the errors.

This is not to single out these often overworked hospital staff members. There is plenty of blame to go around. Details of the medication mixups are contained in a report just released on a one-month survey of 11 major Tokyo hospitals conducted early this year by the Japan Nursing Association. In that brief period, the survey found, there were 257 instances of patients receiving the wrong drugs, usually because of a nurse's error. Fortunately, no deaths or permanent injuries ensued.

Nevertheless, harm could have resulted in almost 40 percent of the cases, and a few patients did have to extend their hospital stays. Not everyone is that lucky, as reports of deaths, brain damage and other serious injuries resulting from treatment errors make clear. Too often, the victims are infants or the elderly, the most vulnerable members of society.