This Is The Effort Of The Indonesian Government To Suppress The Death Rate Of Hajj Pilgrims In 2024

Illustration - The Atmosphere Of The Prophet's Mosque In Medina, Saudi Arabia. BETWEEN/Asep Firmansyah

JAKARTA - The government has made a number of innovations to monitor the health of pilgrims, one of which is the QR Code in the Hajj Congregation Health Card (KKJH) which is the identity card or identification card of the pilgrims. This matter was revealed by the Ministry of Health.

"If scanned the QR Code, it contains information about the concise history of the health of the pilgrims. There is a name, date of birth, age. Then, if he has been sick, what is the pain. If he has taken drugs, what medicines are taken routinely. What are the allergies, "said Head of the Indonesian Ministry of Health's Hajj Health Center Liiek Marhaendro Susilo in a statement received in Jakarta, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, May 18.

Liliek explained that the Indonesian government is trying to reduce the death rate of pilgrims in organizing the Hajj pilgrimage in 2024. Learning from experience in 2023, the number of Indonesian pilgrims who died reached 774 people with the majority of the elderly (elderly) group.

Therefore, he said, the Ministry of Health together with the Ministry of Religion did not want last year's incident to happen again. So that the main focus of organizing this year's Hajj is that pilgrims who are dispatched to the Holy Land must be fully healthy and have their health checked. Especially, those who have comorbid diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart, need to be controlled routine health.

"This year, we are working with the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Health's Digital Transformation Office (DTO), we facilitate the name tag of the pilgrims in the backyard with a QR Code," he said.

He said that the use of the QR Code was part of the provision of a summary of the medical history of pilgrims or known as the International Patient Summary (IPS). According to him, IPS was adopted to meet requests from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Saudi Arabia.

Completeness of the congregation's medical history which can be directly accessed through the QR Code is expected to provide quick and proper treatment if the congregation is sick.

Liliek said that the next innovation to reduce the number of pilgrims who died was the criteria for tightening health istitha'ah. Istitha'ah means the ability of pilgrims from the health aspect, both physically and mentally, which is measured through examination.

For example, in the past, if you had heart disease or kidney failure stage 5, you were not allowed to leave. Now, stage 4 cannot go. In the past, people's blood sugar was diabetic, we used very loose criteria. Now it is tightened, HbA1c or blood sugar checks must be 8 percent, if more than that we can't go," said Kapuskes Liliek.

According to him, other efforts to check the health of pilgrims in the form of additional assessments. Liliek emphasized that Hajj is a physical worship that demands physical and mental health. The assessments added include cognitive assessments, mental assessments, and activity assessments, especially the elderly, to see how much they can do their daily activities.

In order to support the health of the elderly pilgrims, he said, there is also an elderly friendly implementation program, which has started at the 2023 Hajj pilgrimage and is again implemented carefully in 2024.

In this program, he said, every officer who has passed even though he has not left will be involved in the Hajj rituals. In manasik before departure, there are fitness measurement activities for the pilgrims. During the rituals, the health of the pilgrims is monitored to ensure that the congregation is completely healthy physically and mentally upon departure.

"This is a form of the implementation of the elderly friendly. By involving officers, both Indonesian Hajj Health Workers (TKHI) and the Hajj Organizing Committee (PPIH) who are on duty in Manasik activities, officers will know the congregation who is leaving early," said Liliek.

'Know earlier this is what we expect to have a personal emotional relationship.'

Liliek said, previously the pilgrims and the accompanying health workers met at the embarkation so that they felt they were still foreign. As a result, when on the plane, the congregation became a bit shy. In fact, most of the pilgrims are those who have never boarded a plane, rarely travel by plane and not during their time to travel to Jeddah, which takes 10 hours.

"Therefore, health problems often arise related to matters that are actually routine cycles. For example, urinating, how to use toilets, they hesitate to ask questions. This is what we must educate the congregation so that while on the plane they continue to eat and drink," he said.

"Drink it, don't lose it. If you want to go to the toilet, just keep going back. Well, if we get to know you first, what we hope is that the congregation will not hesitate, don't be ashamed to ask questions and we ask health workers to proactively provide explanations. How to use aircraft facilities and so on.."

To prepare better for the health condition of the pilgrims, Liliek said, after the completion of the 2024 Hajj season, health preparations are planned to begin with the pilgrims departing in 2025 and 2026.