# 医療法 / Medical Care Act — 第十六条 (Article 16) - Law: 医療法 (Medical Care Act), 昭和二十三年法律第二百五号 - English title "Medical Care Act": Ministry of Justice translation - Kind: Act — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say. - Provision: 第十六条 (Article 16) — address `art-16` - Text in force since: 2026-10-01 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-16 - Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-16 - Every provision below carries its address and both URLs on the line under it. - Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below. Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names. They are never merged and never substituted for one another. --- ### 第十六条 art-16 · https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-16 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-16 **第一項** 医業を行う病院の管理者は、病院に医師を宿直させなければならない。ただし、当該病院の医師が当該病院に隣接した場所に待機する場合その他当該病院の入院患者の病状が急変した場合においても当該病院の医師が速やかに診療を行う体制が確保されている場合として厚生労働省令で定める場合は、この限りでない。 art-16/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-16/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-16/par-1 The administrator of a hospital that carries out a medical practice must have a physician on night duty in the hospital; provided, however, that this does not apply to the case where the physicians of the relevant hospital stand by at a place adjacent to the relevant hospital or other cases specified by an Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as those where a system is in place which ensures that the physicians of the relevant hospital promptly provide medical treatment in the event of a sudden change in the medical condition of an inpatient of the relevant hospital. Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System ## Cited by 2 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction. - 医療法 第十七条第一項 — https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-17/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-17/par-1 - 医療法 第八十九条第一項第一号 — https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-89/par-1/item-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-89/par-1/item-1 --- ## Sources - e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 医療法 — the text in force from 2026-10-01 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/323AC0000000205/20261001_507AC0000000087), retrieved 2026-10-19 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Medical Care Act — Ministry of Justice translation (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4006/tb), retrieved 2026-10-19 - This site's parser, version 210 — 医療法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-10-19