Minister Of Health Budi Emphasizes Health Centers Must Perform Health Screening

Indonesian Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin in Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands, Sunday (15/9/2024). (ANTARA/Ogen)

TANJUNGPINANG - Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin emphasized that puskesmas must carry out health screening to find out the risk factors of disease, especially stroke and heart.

Cases of stroke and heart disease in Indonesia are very high, where patients die from stroke reaching 300 thousand people per year and the heart is 250 thousand people per year. Meanwhile, data during COVID-19, patients died of stroke due to 900 thousand people per year and the heart of 750 thousand people per year.

"Therefore, it is important to carry out health screening to help prevent disease by detecting health conditions before symptoms appear," said Minister of Health Budi during a visit to the Raja Ahmadpresent Hospital (RAT) Riau Islands Province (Kepri) in Tanjungpinang City, Antara, Sunday, September 15.

The Minister of Health said that until July 2024 there were around 60 million Indonesians who had conducted health screening based on name by address.

"Through health screening, it can be seen that the number of adults with high blood condition, sugar, and cholesterol," he said.

He said that currently all puskesmas in Indonesia, including in Riau Islands, are in the process of receiving assistance with an analyzer hematology equipment from the Ministry of Health. The tool serves to measure samples in the form of blood.

In addition, he said, puskesmas also received assistance with electrocardiogram (EKG) and ultrasonography (USG) devices.

"The medical equipment assistance targets 10,000 health centers throughout Indonesia and is targeted for completion by 2027," said Minister of Health Budi.

He added that the puskesmas also received medical assistance to be given free of charge to patients, such as amlodiphine for high blood pressure, metformin for blood sugar, and statin for cholesterol.

Thus, he continued, in the future it is hoped that the number of stroke and heart patients referred to the hospital will decrease, because usually the number of patients being taken to the hospital is already in a final or severe condition.

"This type of disease requires a long process, not suddenly occurs. That's why we also have a long time to make the community healthy through early detection at the puskesmas," said Minister of Health Budi.