Sad News, 545 Doctors Died As Of July 17, Mostly From East Java

A number of doctors along with other medical personnel performed the funeral prayer for a pulmonary specialist who tested positive for COVID-19 during the last release using an ambulance to the cemetery at the Zainainal Abidin General Hospital/ Antara

JAKARTA - Chief Executive of the Mitigation Daily Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI), dr. Mahesa Paranadipa revealed that as many as 545 doctors in Indonesia had died as of July 17, 2021.

"If you look at the data on doctor deaths, the distribution per month, for July this figure has exceeded 100 percent of the number of deaths last June. The total number of deaths of doctors is currently 545 physician colleagues (as of July 17, 2021)," he said in a media discussion via online. entitled "Update on Doctor's Condition and Strategy for Risk Mitigation Efforts to Prevent the Collapse of Health Facilities", reported by Antara, Sunday, July 18.

From this figure by region, doctors in the East Java region occupy the highest position with a total of 110 people, DKI Jakarta (83), Central Java (81), West Java (76) and North Sumatra (38).

Based on gender, male doctors died the most with a total of 84 percent or 453 people. According to Mahesa, this is considering the tasks that are mostly carried out by male doctor colleagues in the COVID-19 isolation area, although there are indeed many female doctors on duty.

Meanwhile, in terms of specialization, general practitioners rank the highest of the total deaths, namely 292 people, followed by specialists (241 doctors) which include obstetrics and gynecology specialists, internal medicine specialists, pediatricians, surgery, anesthesia and ENT-KL.

On the other hand, data from the Indonesian National Nurses Association (PPNI) as of July 18, 2021, shows that around 7,392 nurses were confirmed positive, 309 suspected, and those who died were 445 nurse friends.

Mahesa then highlighted the increasing condition of COVID-19 patients in recent times, causing health workers to have an excessive workload. He is worried that this will lead to potential fatigue for health workers, which will result in a decrease in their immunity.

"We, the PB IDI Mitigation Team, have provided guidelines regarding the protection of doctors. However, even though most of the doctors have been vaccinated until the second injection, the spike in patients is high enough to cause workload overload," he said.

Therefore, to anticipate this condition, according to him, there must still be education for the community to comply with health protocols (using masks, washing hands, maintaining distance, limiting mobilization and avoiding crowds).

On the other hand, the IDI Mitigation Team believes that the government will take policies to continue to protect and save all the people.

"We ask for the cooperation of all parties to jointly make the fight against this pandemic a joint fight so that we can suppress cases," said Mahesa.