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住友病院
Say “Sumitomo Byoin” and show the driver 住友病院. Three minutes’ walk from Nakanoshima station on the Keihan Nakanoshima line, at the western end of the island.
Read “Sumitomo Byoin”.
- TypePrivate — a general incorporated foundation, founded by the Sumitomo group in 1921
- BedsAbout 496
- Address5-3-20 Nakanoshima, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0005
- Switchboard+81 6 6443 1261
- Websitesumitomo-hp.or.jp
- HoursThe hospital states that its emergency outpatient department is open 24 hours, as a secondary emergency medical institution
- LanguagesJapanese only, its website included; the hospital asks patients who cannot converse in Japanese to bring an interpreter or to use its medical translation app for a fee, and to telephone before coming
- Opened1921
- On the mapOpen in Google Maps
A private foundation hospital at the western end of Nakanoshima, founded by the Sumitomo group in 1921 and rebuilt on this site at the end of the 1990s. It is a designated secondary emergency hospital whose emergency outpatient department, it says, is open around the clock, and it is the only one of the three that states you can still be seen without a referral letter. Everything on its website is in Japanese, and it asks non-Japanese speakers to bring an interpreter or pay for its translation app.
What it is known for
Being reachable, and being willing. Sumitomo Hospital is a 496-bed general hospital on Nakanoshima, the island of offices and museums between Umeda and the river, and it is designated a secondary emergency medical institution by Osaka Prefecture and the city — the tier that admits moderate and serious cases, below the critical care centres. It states that its emergency outpatient department is open 24 hours, and that everything outside weekday consulting hours is handled there. Its answer to the question every visitor asks is unusually direct: yes, you can be seen without a referral letter.
Who it suits
Travellers staying in Umeda or Kita, families coming back along the JR Loop Line from Universal Studios, and anyone with no referral letter who needs a doctor today. It suits you much less if you need English: the hospital’s website is Japanese only, and its own guidance is that a patient who cannot converse in Japanese should bring an interpreter, or use a medical translation app it provides for a fee. It asks everyone to telephone first, because several departments see appointments only, and first-visit reception closes at 11.30.
Cost and insurance
A first visit without a referral letter carries a published surcharge of 7,700 yen including tax, and arriving outside consulting hours carries a further 7,700 yen; a follow-up visit in the same position is 3,300 yen. All of that sits on top of the treatment itself, which a visitor pays in full, having no Japanese insurance behind them. There is no direct billing to a foreign insurer to count on, so settle at the cashier and claim afterwards, and ask for an itemised receipt on the day. The translation app, if you need it, is 5,500 yen.
Getting there
Nakanoshima station on the Keihan Nakanoshima line is three minutes’ walk. Shin-Fukushima on the JR Tozai line is thirteen, Higobashi on the Yotsubashi subway thirteen, Awaza on the Chuo line twelve, and JR Fukushima on the Osaka Loop Line about fifteen — two stops from Nishikujo, where you change for Universal Studios. City buses run from the south exit of Osaka station and the Nakanoshima loop bus from its west exit. Telephone +81 6 6443 1261 before setting out, as the hospital asks.
Details checked against the hospital’s own website, September 2026. Call before a non-urgent visit; in an emergency call 119 or the hospital’s own emergency line above. Travel information, not medical advice.
The other 2 hospitals in Osaka
- Osaka Red Cross HospitalPublic, about 826 beds, Tennoji-ku, seven minutes from Tsuruhashi.
- Osaka Medical CenterPublic, about 605 beds, Tanimachi 4-chome, by Osaka Castle Park.