A survey has found that many businesses in Japan providing home-visit nursing care were at times unable to provide such services due to a serious shortage of caregivers.



More than 1,000 administrators at home-visit nursing care service providers and care managers responded to the online survey conducted last month by the Nippon Careservice Craft Union.



The survey shows 89.4 percent of the administrators said there had been times since April last year when they had to decline requests for nursing care services.



It also shows 55.2 percent of them reported a decline in last year's revenues. Of them, 73.3 percent cited the labor shortage as the prime reason.



More than two thirds of care managers, or 68.3 percent, also cited the shortage of caregivers as a reason why they were sometimes unable to draw up a necessary care plan.



Union officials are warning that nursing-care insurance policyholders may not receive the care they need due to the problem.



They say the government should take measures to help secure necessary manpower as the labor shortage could undermine the foundation of the nation's nursing-care insurance program.