Minister Of Health: Medical Devices Don't Just Save, People Need

Photo Illustration: Antara

JAKARTA - Indonesian Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin highlighted the use of anthropometric devices or body gauges that have not been maximized properly by the Puskesmas.

"It is better if the medical equipment that has been given is immediately used. Don't just save it, because the community needs these tools," said Minister of Health Budi in a written statement, Sunday, January 7.

The Minister of Health received a number of Puskesmas still using unstandardly anthropometric tools when visiting a number of Puskesmas on his visit to Tojo Una-Una Regency, Central Sulawesi, on Saturday, January 6. The Minister of Health said that a number of Puskesmas still used old or manual versions of the antropy tool. It is feared that the use of this tool will not show any real height or weight. Therefore, he asked the Puskesmas in Tojo Una-Una Regency not to store the anthropometric equipment that has been provided by the government. He emphasized that the anthropometric equipment should be used as optimally as possible for early detection activities of stunting potential in children. In addition to anthropometric tools, the Minister of Health also requested that the use and management of ultrasonographic or ultrasound equipment be improved. This is because the tools used to determine fetal development in that content cannot operate properly in several visited Puskesmas, because ultrasound paper or thermal paper papers are not available and printers are damaged.

"I ask the Health Office to immediately fulfill and improve it, so that its function can be optimal again," he said. In addition to stunting prevention equipment, the Minister of Health also asked puskesmas-puskesmas to effectively spur the use of henaanalyzer tools as a tool to help detect diseases such as cancer, talasemia, hepatitis, tuberculosis (TBC), diabetes, and various other diseases automatically. If the health screening tool is optimized, he is optimistic that various health problems, including diabetes which is most suffered by the community in Tojo Una-Una Regency, can be detected, controlled, and treated early at the puskesmas, so that the percentage of recovery is even greater. "If the hetoanalyzer examination is running, the blood test road, the hospital will not be full," said Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin.