The Constitutional Court Holds A Continuation Session For Health Law Tests, Minister Of Health Budi Gives Information

Screenshot - Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin (ANTARA/Fath Putra Mulya)

JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court today held a follow-up hearing on the judicial review of a number of articles in Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health with the agenda of hearing statements from the President and related parties.

Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin was seen attending the trial which was held at the Plenary Session Room of the Indonesian Constitutional Court, Jakarta. Budi was present as the recipient of the power of attorney from the President to deliver the government's statement on the material test in question.

"The agenda for the trial this morning or noon is to hear information from the government or the President," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo opening the trial, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, June 3.

Apart from the Minister of Health, other government representatives were also present, including the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health Kunta Wibawa Dasa Nugraha, Head of the Health Development Policy Agency of the Ministry of Health Asnawi Abdullah, and the Director General of Legislation at the Ministry of Law, Dhana Putra.

Starting his statement, Minister of Health Budi emphasized that health is an integral part of human rights that are protected and guaranteed sustainability by the state, as mandated by the constitution.

According to him, the Health Law is here as a form of codification of the Indonesian health legal system as well as a manifestation of the state's responsibility in meeting the needs of the community to obtain health services that are easily accessible and of high quality.

"Law Number 17 of 2023 updates the Indonesian health legal system which was previously spread across various laws and regulations marked by institutional fragmentation and inter-profession disparities," said Budi.

He also said that the latest Health Law was prepared using an integrative approach. This aims to reorganize institutional relations more proportionally between the community, medical personnel, health workers, and the state.

"From previously oriented to professional organizations, it has been reorganized into a more balanced and community-oriented structure," said the Minister of Health.

This material test case is registered with Number 182/PUU-XXII/2024. The case was requested by the Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI) along with 52 other applicants, including a doctor and dentist.

Several clusters of problems raised by the petitioners, namely the abolition of professional medical personnel organizations, the abolition of Indonesian medical consils, the abolition of collegium as an academic body of professional organizations, and the mistake of determining criminal sanctions for the act of employing medical personnel who do not have a license for practice.

The petitioners in the petition repair hearing, Thursday (6/3), as reported by the Constitutional Court's official website, conveyed at least 14 petitum items (the things requested).

One of the petitum points of the petitioners, namely asking the Constitutional Court to state Article 311 paragraph (1) of the Health Law is interpreted as "medical workers and health workers form professional organizations for doctors, namely the Indonesian Doctors Association and professional organizations for dentists are the Indonesian Dental Association".

Then, stating that Article 268 paragraph (1) of the Health Law is interpreted as "To improve the quality and technical competence of medical personnel and health workers as well as provide protection and legal certainty to the community, medical personnel are formed by Indonesian medical consils and health workers are formed by Indonesian health constituents".

Other articles that were also requested to re-indicate the Court included Article 270, Article 272 paragraph (1), Article 272 paragraph (3), Article 258 paragraph (2), Article 264 paragraph (1) letter b, Article 264 paragraph (5), Article 291 paragraph (2), Article 421 paragraph (1), Article 442, and Article 454 letter c of Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health.