DKI Needs Additional 7,000 Health Workers, But Ministry Of Health Just Provided 3,000

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta needs 7,000 additional health workers (nakes) to help deal with the pandemic and treat COVID-19 patients in the capital.

However, Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta, Ahmad Riza Patria, said that the Ministry of Health could only accept the addition of 3,000 people.

"We have discussed the addition of health workers. Yesterday, the Coordinating Minister (Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan) said that the Ministry of Health has prepared no less than 3,000 which have been prepared," said Riza at DKI City Hall, Central Jakarta, Wednesday, July 14.

Riza said, thousands of health workers were needed to treat COVID-19 patients at referral hospitals, along with the addition of bed and ICU room capacities, to staff serving vaccinations.

Moreover, currently the number of COVID-19 cases in Jakarta has not decreased. In addition to the high transmission rate, the large number of cases in the capital is due to the massive testing rate.

"Indeed there is an increase in positive cases today, 12,667 cases. However, after research, this figure is due to high PCR tests. Last week it reached 211,920. That means it is 21 times greater than the standard requested by WHO," Riza explained.

In fact, he said, Jakarta contributed 31.8 of the accumulated national testing figures. Riza said the DKI Provincial Government wants to complete the handling of the pandemic by identifying cases quickly so that the transmission of the virus can be suppressed.

"So, the concern and strategy in DKI Jakarta is to solve the problem by knowing the identity of the problem, the distribution points. Identify the problem by testing," said Riza.

"The more testing, the more we know where the points of spread are. We do contact tracing and in the end we carry out treatment. This is the best way according to the standards requested by WHO," he continued.

Previously, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that currently the government needed to add up to tens of thousands of health workers, both doctors and nurses to handle the growing number of COVID-19 patients.

"We need additional nurses and doctors. We have identified a need between 16-20 thousand nurses. Regarding doctors, we also see a gap of around 3 thousand doctors," Budi said on Monday, July 12.

To meet this need, the Ministry of Health has begun to look for nurses who are still at the final level but have finished studying and passed the competency test.

"On the instructions of the president, we will talk to the minister of education how we can move these nurses into practice more quickly," said Budi.

Meanwhile, to meet the needs of doctors, Budi sees that there are more than 3 thousand interns who are currently practicing at the hospital and are almost graduating.

"We also see that there are around 3,900 doctors who will finish their internships this year, so we have also prepared those doctors who have just graduated from their internships to enter immediately," he explained.