Deputy Minister Of Health: Indonesia Still Lacks 120 Thousand General Doctors

Deputy Minister Of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono/DOK ANTARA

Deputy Minister of Health (Wamenkes) Dante Saksono Harbuwono said Indonesia still lacks 120 thousand general practitioners according to the ideal ratio expected according to the World Health Organization or WHO.

"Currently, the number of general practitioners in Indonesia is around 150 thousand people, we still lack 120 thousand more people, because the ratio expected by WHO is one doctor for 1,000 residents, while currently, general practitioner education is produced by the medical faculty in Indonesia, one year on average only produces 12,000 people," said Dante as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, September 17.

He emphasized that if this condition is not supported by political policies or government programs, then the need for 120 thousand new doctors can be achieved within the next 10 years.

"For that, what we are doing, first is opening a maximum quota for general practitioner education so that the number of admissions is more. Second, opening a new medical faculty with a systemacademic health survey," he said.

Then the third, continued Dante, is by providing scholarships to the best sons and daughters in the regions to be able to continue medical education in areas that provide medical education with the obligation to return to service to their regions.

In addition, regarding the need for specialist doctors, Dante also explained data from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) that specialist doctors whose ratio is the most significant for public health needs are around 0.30 per 1,000 population, which when compared to the total number of Indonesians is also not enough.

"For specialist doctors, we are also still facing uneven distribution throughout Indonesia, because 59 percent of specialist doctors are still concentrated on the island of Java, so we carry out activities to provide scholarships with an affirmation system to the best doctors in the regions with the LPDP scheme and Ministry of Health scholarship assistance," he said.

According to him, in one year there are around 3,000 scholarships issued by the Ministry of Health through LPDP to provide living and education costs to general practitioners who will continue to become specialist doctors, on the condition that they must return to the area to serve and work as specialist doctors.

According to him, to achieve Indonesia Gold 2045, the need for these doctors needs to be met immediately in order to increase the health level of the Indonesian people.

By Lintang Budiyanti Prameswa