Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin asked the Constitutional Court to reject the request for judicial review submitted by the Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI) because Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health does not conflict with the constitution.
"The government asks the chairman and panel of judges of the Constitutional Court ... to reject the petitioners' requests in its entirety or at least state that the petitioners' petition is unacceptable," Budi said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, June 3.
Budi said the Health Law was prepared to use an integrative approach to reorganize institutional relations more proportionally. In this case, the Minister of Health mentioned one of the petitioners' arguments related to the establishment of professional organizations.
According to the Minister of Health, the norm of Article 311 paragraph (1) of the Health Law which stipulates that "medical workers and health workers can form professional organizations" is a form of affirmation of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.
The Minister of Health stated that these norms are not a form of weakening professional organizations, but instead strengthen constitutional recognition of the rights of association and assembly in the realm of professionalism based on the principles of autonomy.
In a democratic state of law, he said, freedom of association is not subject to orders or requirements from the state, but stands on the basis of the free will of legal subjects.
"Norma also places professional organizations in line with the national health legal system which is inclusive and not exclusive," he said.
In his petition, PB IDI asked the Court to state Article 311 paragraph (1) of the Health Law which means "medical workers and health workers form professional organizations for doctors, namely the Indonesian Doctors Association and professional organizations for dentists, namely the Indonesian Dental Association".
On the other hand, the Minister of Health also explained that the provisions for the formation of the constituents in Article 268 paragraph (1) are the realm of state administration to strengthen accountability, coordination, and effectiveness in supervising and fostering the health profession.
According to him, Article 268 of the Health Law not only stipulates the existence of consil, but also opens space for internal arrangements in the constituency to distinguish functions and organization between medical personnel and health workers.
As for the previous Health Law, namely Law Number 29 of 2004, it was regulated that Indonesian medical consil consisted of medical consils and dentistry concessions. However, in the latest Health Law, the concession is unified.
"Institutional unification does not mean unification of professional identity, but a form of administrative coordination in standard state institutional containers to be more efficient and responsive to the needs of public health services," explained the Minister of Health.
As a context, PB IDI in this case asked the Constitutional Court to state Article 268 paragraph (1) of the Health Law as interpreted as "To improve the quality and technical competence of medical personnel and health workers as well as provide protection and legal certainty to the public, medical personnel are formed by Indonesian medical experts and health workers are formed by Indonesian health constituents".
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The Minister of Health stated that all articles questioned by PB IDI did not conflict with the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. Therefore, according to him, the PB IDI application should be declared rejected by the Constitutional Court or at least unacceptable.
This judicial review case is registered with Number 182/PUU-XXII/2024. The case was requested by the Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association or PB IDI along with 52 other applicants, including a doctor and dentist.
They asked the Constitutional Court to reinterpret the norms of Article 311 paragraph (1), Article 268 paragraph (1), Article 270, Article 272 paragraph (1), Article 272 paragraph (3), Article 258 paragraph (2), Article 264 paragraph (1) letter b, Article 264 paragraph (5), Article 291 paragraph (2), Article 421 paragraph (1), Article 442, and Article 454 letter c of Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health.
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