Watatita: Indonesia Critically Needs Health Care Reform

Lately, I've been disturbed and concerned with the news about a newborn baby who died due to respiratory problems after eight hospitals in Jakarta allegedly refused to treat the child.

According to Indonesia's Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi, the death of Dera Nur Anggraini was not caused by the lack of attention given by the hospital staff, but it was because the baby was born prematurely — she was even less than one kilogram in weight and her lungs hadn't been fully developed.

Causes of premature birth are still generally unknown, and only 25 percent of premature babies survive. To treat a premature born baby requires doctors' expertise, expensive medical machinery and a whole lot of money.

It is such a tragedy for the family to lose a newborn baby. Hospitals claim that they do not discriminate the patient's social status and treat all patients equally.

However, no matter how fairly they try to treat the patients, there is still a very limited number of specialist equipment for some serious medical conditions. Unfortunately, not everyone gets to use it. Ever since the Kartu Sehat Jakarta (Jakarta Health Card) were given out, the number of patients queuing for free health care has increased significantly.

Moreover, we haven't been implementing the right system for the patients. Many confused and desperate patients show up to hospitals which either don't have the right facilities — or not enough rooms —and they don't know where to go to find help.

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahja Purnama suggested that there should be a system where hospitals should be able to contact each other regarding available facilities, expertise or rooms to serve the patients, so that they could transfer patients to a more suitable hospital. This could save so much time for patients who are in urgent need of medical care.

Perhaps both local and central government should investigate which diseases, medical conditions and hospital management issues that need to be handled urgently. After this process, scholarships should be provided for medical students to do more work and research on those medical conditions and management issues in order to increase the amount of expertise in Indonesia.

It's time to prepare Jakarta for better health care to prevent tragedies. Better service, better expertise and better equipment.

(source: www.thejakartaglobe.com)