There Are Still Private Hospitals That Are Reluctant To Handle COVID-19 Patients, Epidemiologist: Minister Of Health, Don't Keep Appealing!

JAKARTA - Head of the Professional Development Division of the Indonesian Epidemiologist Association (PAEI) Masdalina Pane revealed that there are still private hospitals that do not want to allocate treatment for COVID-19 patients in their health facilities.

In fact, the government is currently working on adding 30 percent of special health facilities for COVID-19 in each region, both government-owned hospitals and private hospitals.

"There are still many private hospitals that do not want to treat COVID-19 patients," Masdalina told VOI, Monday, January 25.

Masdalina did not explain which hospital was reluctant to treat COVID-19 patients. He only explained the reason. He said the hospital was worried that there would be no patient other than COVID-19 who did not want to undergo treatment at the hospital.

"So they are worried that patients don't want to go there for treatment because they are afraid of contracting COVID-19. If they don't want to treat COVID-19 themselves, how can they resolve the stigma in society?" said Masdalina.

Therefore, Masdalina asked the government to force private hospitals to allocate isolation beds and COVID-19 patient care at least 40 percent of their health facilities.

"Do not just pressure the people, the hospital will also be pressured. The Minister of Health, with his authority, do not keep appealing. Appealing does not have a coercive aspect," he said.

Previously, Chairman of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN) Airlangga Hartato said the government would increase the capacity of isolation care beds and ICU for COVID-19 patients in the near future.

The capacity of this COVID-19 special care bed will be increased by 30 percent from the previous one in each province. Because, the increasing cases make the use of the bed getting thinner.

"The government encourages optimization of the bed, both at the government level, regional public hospitals and private hospitals. The allocation for handling COVID-19 is increased to 30 percent," said Airlangga, some time ago.

Airlangga said the Minister of Health would coordinate an increase in bed capacity by converting public care rooms into special COVID-19 treatments.

The plan to allocate public care beds to specifically for COVID-19 is carried out in state-owned hospitals, regional public hospitals, and a number of private hospitals.

In addition, the government will also increase the number of special COVID-19 health workers. This follows the plan to increase the bed capacity of isolation patients and the ICU for COVID-19.