Referral Hospital Almost Full, This Is Cak Imin's Request For The Ministry Of Health

Illustration Wikimedia Commons/Alberto Giuliani

JAKARTA - COVID-19 cases in Indonesia continue to soar. Based on government data as of Monday, July 5, at 12.00 WIB, there were 29,745 new cases of COVID-19.

This figure is the highest daily addition of cases since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in Indonesia. So far, the total number of cases has reached 2,313,829, as of March 2, 2020.

In fact, the All-Indonesian Hospital Association (Persi) stated that the Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR) for COVID-19 referral hospitals in Indonesia was almost full, especially on the island of Java.

In this regard, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar asked the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) to provide assistance to hospitals by increasing the capacity of treatment rooms and considering converting non-Covid beds to COVID-19.

"If the hospital is in the red zone or the BOR is above 80 percent, the hospital needs to convert a minimum of 40 percent of inpatient beds for COVID-19 patients, and convert a minimum of 25 percent of the ICU from the inpatient room," Muhaimin told reporters, Tuesday, July 6th.

The chairman of the House's COVID-19 Handling Supervision Team assessed that the Ministry of Health needs to seriously consider the current condition of the hospital. One of them is by increasing the number of Field Hospitals or Emergency Hospitals from government-owned buildings that are not used to increase the hospital's ability to serve COVID-19 patients.

Given, said Muhaimin, the condition of the hospital in the midst of an increasing pandemic currently requires extra handling.

"We ask the Ministry of Health to pay attention to the need for a balance between the needs of health workers (nakes), logistics, and operational costs with real needs which are currently increasing sharply," said Cak Imin calling Muhaimin Iskandar.

He also encouraged the Ministry of Health to simplify the payment claim process at hospitals. Because, so far, the chain for claim collection is quite difficult because not all hospitals have good Information Technology (IT) capabilities.

"This makes the claim process take a long time and makes it more difficult for patients to complete the administrative process amid the surge in COVID-19 patients," said Muhaimin.