Fulfilling Needs, Minister Of Health Budi Says The Government Will School 100 Oncology Doctors To 4 Countries

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health said that every year the government sends 100 doctors to China, India, Japan and South Korea to meet the needs of oncologist doctors for the treatment of national cancer.

"The biggest problem in handling cancer in Indonesia is the doctor, we don't have enough oncology doctors," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin in a statement received in Jakarta, Antara, Sunday, November 24.

According to Budi, this shortage of doctors has hampered the distribution of medical devices to hospitals in the regions because no specialists operate them.

Therefore, to overcome this problem, the government launched a wingship program and restore collegium to the Ministry of Health.

Indonesia, he said, has collaborated with the governments of China, India, Japan and Korea to send 100 doctors each year.

"Because we want to accelerate the wingship program, so that internal medicine specialists can do chemotherapy," Budi explained.

The hundreds of doctors, said Budi, will take part in the field's wingship program such as intermediate cardiology, and the duration of the training ranges from 6 to 24 months.

The government has taken a policy to send doctors abroad because of the limited capacity of education in the country for the wingship program.

This step is expected to increase the number of doctors who are able to treat cancer, so that more patients can be saved from the dangers of cancer because the disease is treated more quickly.

He also reminded the importance of support from various parties, especially from collegium, in the success of this program.

He assessed that, without collegium support, programs to increase the number of quality specialist doctors for chemotherapy and medical interventions would be difficult to realize.

"For some groups, this effort is not popular, but we must remember that 234 thousand people die every year," said the Minister of Health.