300 Thousand Integrated Healthcare Centers Reactivated To Support Child Immunization Month

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health has reactivated the role of Integrated Healthcare Center (posyandu) health service facilities to support the 2022 National Child Immunization Month program to run optimally.

"It's difficult for the government to provide health services to 80,000 villages, 514 regencies/cities in 34 provinces if you only rely on Public Health Center (puskesmas), which number around 10.000," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin when delivering a virtual press statement followed by the Indonesian Ministry of Health's YouTube video in Jakarta, Thursday 12 May.

Budi said the current number of puskesmas would not be enough to reach the community to all corners of the country.

The Ministry of Health needs to expand the reach of health services by utilizing additional health facilities as needed, amounting to around 300 thousand units to remote areas.

"We have observed that the health facilities, which number around 300 thousand units, are posyandu that have been built for a long time, run well and are known to the public in all corners of Indonesia," he said.

For this reason, the Ministry of Health together with the Ministry of Home Affairs and local governments have reactivated posyandu in providing standard health services to the community.

In its implementation, said Budi, there will be 10 to 20 primary health services that posyandu can provide to the community. "We will ensure that all supporting facilities and infrastructure are immediately completed. One of them is immunization," he said.

According to Budi, the policy is in line with the primary service transformation program in Indonesia.

"National immunization is successful if it is supported by posyandu cadres," he said as quoted by Antara.

At the same event, the Director-General of P2P of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said the COVID-19 pandemic situation had triggered the slow pace of national immunization coverage due to concerns of health workers and the public regarding the transmission of COVID-19.

"During this pandemic the coverage is left far behind," he said.

The first stage of the National Child Immunization Month begins in May 2022 in Aceh, Riau, Riau Islands, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, with the goal of immunization against measles and rubella in children 9-15 months.

The first stage continues to Bengkulu, Jambi, South Sumatra, Bangka Belitung, Lampung, and all provinces in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua for children 9-59 months.

The second phase will start in August 2022 in the Provinces of DKI Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java for children 9-59 months. "Bali and Yogyakarta do not carry out immunizations because the immunization coverage is good," he said.

In addition to measles and rubella immunization, said Maxi, throughout May-December 2022 the Ministry of Health carried out Kejar immunization for children 12-59 months who did not or had not received a complete oral or polio injection vaccination.