Minister Of Health Budi Says Free Health Screening Is Planned To Start February

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) said that free health screening is planned to start in February at the time determined by President Prabowo Subianto and the socialization of his program starting in January.

Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the screening was directed to prevent the highest causes of death in Indonesia, namely stroke and heart disease.

He said there were three things that were checked, namely blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood fat or cholesterol.

"Well, this is what we want to pursue first actually. Not as sophisticated as or as sophisticated as imagined for the elite, middle class. Now this is really screening for hundreds of millions of Indonesians who have never been screened," said the Minister of Health after the award ceremony. quoted from Antara, Thursday, January 9th.

The screening, he said, will be carried out in 10 thousand health centers and there is also the possibility of using around 15 thousand-20 thousand private clinics to reach as many as 280 million people.

"This birthday screening is done for groups of toddlers, adult groups, and the elderly group. So that the puskesmas is not too full. Meanwhile, the group of children, so the age of school is up to 18, it will be screened at school. Not on birthdays, but when they enter school," he said.

He added that the type of screening given depends on the age group, for example, cancer screening for the elderly and screening for congenital diseases for toddlers.

"Because this is a lot, massive hundreds of millions. So for that fourth, I order this to be the same as COVID, later it will really use a digital system," he said.

After screening, he said, the results will be sent via WhatsApp (WA), such as during the COVID-19 PCR test. Therefore, his party will promote One Healthy starting this week.

In the questionnaire that the platform will later present, said the Minister of Health, there will also be questions about mental health.

"The screening of the soul is now under-screen. So people feel healthy and mentally even though they don't. And the evidence is like the one before, the deceased (dr. Aulia Risma Lestari). That's actually she has a mental illness, but it hasn't been detected. Because of this mental problem, the screening is not good," said Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin.