Surabaya Is Ready To Implement Telemedicine Services For Residents Who Are Isoman

JAKARTA - A telemedicine service from the Ministry of Health to assist residents who are undergoing self-isolation (isoman) due to exposure to COVID-19 is ready to be implemented in the city of Surabaya, East Java.

"We ask for the method to be simplified, so that isoman residents can access telemedicine services. Moreover, most of the isoman are in villages," said Deputy Mayor of Surabaya Armuji when chairing an online coordination meeting for handling COVID-19 in Surabaya, reported by Antara, Tuesday, 27 July.

The telemedicine services provided are in the form of consultations with doctors, ambulance assistance, home visits by the medical team, free drug delivery services to the location of COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment at home.

According to Armuji, the Ministry of Health is expanding the reach of using telemedicine services in West Java, Central Java, East Java and Bali. However, he continued, its use has only reached the urban scale.

This telemedicine service was previously piloted in DKI Jakarta and then expanded to cover the areas of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi (Jabodetabek).

Apart from Jabodetabek, now the use of telemedicine services is being expanded further in Karawang, Bandung City, Semarang City, Surakarta City, Yogyakarta City, Surabaya City, Malang City, and Denpasar City. There are 11 telemedicine platforms in Indonesia that collaborate with the Ministry of Health, including Halodoc, YesDok, Alodokter, Click Doctor, SehatQ, Good Doctor, Klinikgo, Healthy Link, Milvik, Prosehat, and Getwell.

The online coordination meeting for handling COVID-19 was chaired by Vice Mayor Armuji and was attended by the Ministry of Health, the Indonesian Telemedicine Association, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine throughout Surabaya and Commission D for Welfare of the Surabaya DPRD.

While leading the coordination meeting, Armuji had asked for an explanation regarding the mechanism and procedures for accessing medicines provided by the Ministry of Health through the telemedicine platform.

"Many of our residents are self-isolating so that health services for residents must be optimized, one of which is by sending medicines," he said.

Currently, he continued, the Surabaya City Government is preparing healthy houses spread across 154 urban villages using elementary school buildings and government assets. He hopes that the healthy house can be synergized with the Ministry of Health program.

"So the city government prepares healthy homes and the Ministry of Health can help supply medicines and consulting services through the telemedicine platform," he said

Meanwhile, representatives from the Directorate of Health Surveillance and Quarantine (Surkarkes) of the Ministry of Health, Imran Pambudi, said that to access telemedicine facilities and drug packages, they must report the results of the PCR swab test or antigen rapid test to the Ministry of Health Database with the New All Record (NAR) system.