The Irony Of Aulia Risma Lestari's Death In Indonesia Lacks Specialist Doctors

JAKARTA The case of alleged bullying or bullying against Aulia Risma Lestari, a young doctor who is currently studying specialists, has attracted the attention of the public. Aulia died of suicide due to bullying that she experienced.

Aulia, 22, is a student of an anesthetic study program at the Faculty of Medicine, Diponegoro University (Undip), Semarang, Central Java. He was found dead on Monday (12/8/2024) night in his boarding room in the Lempongsari area, Gajahmungkur District.

Aulia is suspected of committing suicide by injecting a Roculax type of anesthetic. This reckless thing was done because he was not strong enough with the bullying he experienced in the Specialist Doctor Education Program (PPDS) at the Kariadi Hospital.

Health observer from the Central for Indonesia study institute's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI) Dian Saminarsih emphasized that opening and acknowledging the existence of bullying in PPDS, similar problems in the future can be prevented.

"It's very cruel for someone to have to take his life just to get a specialist doctor's degree. So inhumane," said Dian.

Bullying seems to have become commonplace, even in the world of medical education. Generally this is done by senior doctors against juniors who are currently studying specialists.

In 2020, a doctor who studied specialists at Airlangga University and Dr. Soetomo Hospital committed suicide, allegedly due to bullying. The cases where doctors resigned from specialist education were also quite large.

The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) has also received 320 reports related to cases of doctor bullying in 2023/2024. Regarding bullying at FK Undip, the Ministry of Health admitted that it had verified three cases at that time.

Before the suicide case that was carried out by Aulia Risma, the public was also shocked by the doctor's confession at PPDS who was the victim of bullying. The shapes of the plugs by the seniors against the juniors start from such a long guard hour, it can reach 16 to 36 hours.

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin also knows that this issue of bullying has occurred many years ago. He himself mentioned reports in which students were made personal assistants to his seniors such as paying for laundry, taking children, and even being asked to jointize food to buy holiday plane tickets.

For the case of Aulia Risma's death, Undip stated that the victim had health problems and denied any element of bullying. A different statement was made by the Ministry of Health who believed the victim committed suicide due to bullying.

Health observer from CISDI Diah Saminarsih said that the background for the death of this prospective specialist doctor became a wild ball because there was no medical diagnosis related to the mental health condition of the victim.

According to Diah, FK Undip and Kariadi Hospital should be open, instead of covering up problems that actually make bullying have the potential to continue to repeat itself in the future.

"So admit that there was a problem first and if there is a problem, don't cover it up, it just covers the top of the iceberg?" said Diah.

"The bullying is a problem that has been passed down from generation to generation, it must be admitted. Then PPDS education must be reviewed again if it turns out to be a big pressure," Diah added.

Bullying cases in the world of health education occurred when Indonesia was still lacking in specialist doctors. Citing the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) page, with a calculation of the target ratio of 0.28: 1,000, Indonesia currently lacks around 30 thousand specialist doctors.

It took more than 10 years for Indonesia to meet the number of specialist doctors with the assumption that the number of specialist doctor program providers is 21 out of 92 medical faculties by producing specialist graduates around 2,700 each year.

Public health expert Hermawan Saputra said the bullying of PPDS occurred because of the education system of specialist doctors in Indonesia.

Not all universities in Indonesia have specialist doctor programs, so the quota is very limited. Thus, there is a very tight competition for doctors depending on network and financial capacity.

"This is what causes competition to occur and on the one hand, people who enter must also be ready with various dense, strict, and feodalistic educational processes. There is very tight bullying arts, especially in stages when they enter the Stage program," said Hermawan.

Specialist doctor programs also often make young doctors forced to have intense relationships with seniors. But this relationship is used by senior doctors.

Meanwhile, Postgraduate Lecturer at the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia, Ede Darmawan, also did not deny the existence of a culture of bullying among specialist doctors. He even admitted that this culture had occurred for a long time and continued to be passed down because related parties did not take concrete steps to decide it.

"There is a feeling of revenge indeed, 'I used to dig up by seniors', now that's how it is," said Ede.

It's a shame, when Indonesia lacks specialist doctors, these potential specialist doctors, although not all of them, are overshadowed by feelings of fear when traveling to PPDS. In fact, they will provide benefits, not only for themselves and their families, but also for the community.