Anticipating A Surge In Cases Of Christmas And New Year Holidays, Budi Gunadi: Ministry Of Health Establishes COVID-19 Field Hospital

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health will set up a field hospital for COVID-19 treatment to deal with the potential spike in new cases due to the long holidays of Christmas and New Year 2021.

Initially, the Ministry of Health would optimize the addition of a special bed for COVID-19 treatment by adding new referral hospitals in non-RSUD hospitals or private hospitals.

"The Ministry of Health has prepared a number of anticipatory strategies. Among them are the optimization of private hospital beds and the addition of new referral hospitals," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin in his statement, Friday, December 25.

If COVID-19 cases continue to soar, the Ministry of Health will add more treatment and isolation beds by establishing field hospitals to emergency tents in the treatment area for COVID-19 patients.

"Other steps that will be taken include strengthening the implementation of the COVID-19 management protocol in health care facilities (fasyankes), converting public care rooms into COVID-19 treatment rooms, setting up emergency tents in hospitals for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and establishing field hospitals. / COVID-19 emergency in the area, "explained Budi.

These steps, according to Budi, are needed because he predicts that there will be a 40 percent increase in cases after the long holiday at the end of the year. Not to forget, the addition of a COVID-19 treatment bed was accompanied by a restructuring of the COVID-19 health service referral system.

"Considering that after the long holiday there was an increase in cases ranging from 20-40 percent. So I want to make sure the bed (TT) is ready, the ICU is ready, health workers are ready, PPE is ready and the medicines are also ready," he said.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Health has provided a budget for hospitals for the procurement of drugs, medical devices and PPE. Medicines have also been distributed to 34 provincial health offices and 852 hospitals.

"Based on the hospital's calculations, the current supply of medicines is still sufficient for the needs of the next 3 months," he said.

Budi also emphasized the importance of ensuring that all health workers are well protected and handled, from nutritional intake to ensuring health workers are not exhausted.

"Health workers are the front line. I want to make sure we maximize the protection we can give them. I think we have lost too many health workers and it is our duty to protect them," Budi added.