Ministry Of Health Sends 65 Health Workers To Help Handling Turkey-Syria Earthquake Victims

Joint SAR officers entered a Boeing 747 Indonesian Air Force aircraft to follow a humanitarian mission to Turkey at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, Jakarta, Saturday (11/2/2023)/ANTARA PHOTO/Galih Pradipta/tom.

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) sent as many as 65 health workers to help deal with earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria.

"This medical team will depart on Monday (13/2), in a group with a special plane," said Acting Head of the Health Crisis Center at the Ministry of Health, Sumarjaya, in a written statement, as quoted by ANTARA, Sunday, 12 February.

The medical personnel sent consisted of specialist doctors, health workers, and health support workers.

Specialist doctors consist of surgeons, orthopedic specialists, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, emergency specialists, obstetricians, and psychiatrists.

Health workers namely general practitioners, operating room nurses, emergency room nurses, ICU nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, midwives, epidemiologists, nutritionists, and environmental health. Health support personnel include administration, logistics, and health coordinators.

"Later on the health team from the Ministry of Health will join 39 medical personnel from the TNI, Polri, and BNPB as the Emergency Medical Team (EMT)," he said.

Sumarjaya emphasized that in this humanitarian mission, the Ministry of Health prioritized providing fast and appropriate health services to victims affected by the earthquake.

With that in mind, the Government of Indonesia will establish a field hospital with type 2 EMT services, because the medical equipment and services provided are complete and can carry out special operations in the field.

Regarding capacity, Sumarjaya said that the EMT type 2 field hospital has quite a large capacity, including being able to serve 100-150 outpatients per day, 10 inpatients per day, 10 minor surgeries per day, 1 major surgery. -2 patients per day, and mobile capable of serving 50 patients per day.

"Now what we bring is the EMT Team type 3, not all countries have it, we upgrade from type 2 because in the field we need X-rays, we need an operating table, that's all of us," he said.

Apart from the medical team, at this initial stage, the Ministry of Health will also send 2.5 tons of health logistics consisting of non-medical logistics, medical devices, medicines, and Consumable Medical Assistance (BMHP).

Meanwhile, regarding the preparation of the team, Sumarjaya said that health workers were asked to study the situation and conditions there. This is because the temperature in Turkey and Syria is currently very cold, with temperatures reaching minus 7 degrees Celsius.

"We have prepared a personal kit, because the temperature there is minus 2 to minus 7 degrees Celsius, for personal logistics we will be assisted by BNPB friends," he said.

The ceremony for releasing the aid was held at the Air Force Base, Halim Perdanakusuma, Jakarta, Saturday (11/2). Sumarjaya said that the dispatch of the health team would support the advance team which started leaving on Saturday (11/2).

After sending an advance team, the government will then send a medical team that is part of the Emergency Medical Team (EMT) on Monday, 13 February 2023 using a special aircraft.

A total of 104 medical teams will be dispatched, with details of 65 people from the Ministry of Health, 17 people from the TNI, 17 people from the National Police, and 4 people from BNPB.

The EMT team will focus on handling the initial emergencies of earthquake victims, namely cases related to broken bones and other injuries.

After the EMT Team is dispatched, there will be a second stage of dispatch of the medical team which will focus on treating diseases that may arise after the earthquake. The second team is planned to be dispatched next month.