Coalition Of Health Professionals Concerned, Government Still Not Consistent In Prioritizing Health In Handling Pandemic

ILLUSTRATION/UNSPLASH

JAKARTA - The Coalition of Health Professionals and Associations (Kompak) has issued a statement of attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been going on for a year and a half.

In her statement, one of Kompak's members, General Chairperson of the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI) Emi Nurjasmi, said that the government still has not been able to consistently address the pandemic by prioritizing health issues.

"It's been 1.5 years since the Indonesian people have been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Various efforts have been made, but the current condition shows that the COVID-19 case has not been resolved. The government seems to be still not consistent in prioritizing health issues as the focus of handling the COVID-19 pandemic. 19," Emi said in a virtual reading of the statement of position, Wednesday, August 18.

Emi views that the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is still high even though it is no longer at the peak of cases. Based on data on August 17, 2021, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has reached 3,892,479 cases, where Indonesia is currently ranked 13th in the world. -19 as many as 120,013 people.

"Even though confirmed cases have decreased, the death rate is still high, even Indonesia has several times recorded the highest daily death case in the world," said Emi.

Not only that, many doctors and health workers have died in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, including 640 doctors, 98 dentists, 637 nurses, 377 midwives, 59 pharmacists, 34 nutritionists, 13 public health experts, and 33 health professionals. laboratory technologist.

"In fact, health human resources are the key to the resilience of the health system in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Then, the achievement of vaccination is still considered low. The government has set a vaccination target of 208,265,720 people. However, until August 17, 2021, the achievement of dose 1 vaccination has only reached 26.4 percent and dose 2 is only 14 percent. This achievement, said Emi, is still far from the target set.

Furthermore, the implementation of 3T (testing, tracing, and treatment) is still not optimal. If referring to WHO standards, by looking at Indonesia's positivity rate (15 - <25 percent), then testing should be carried out for 10 per 1,000 population or around 400,000 people per day.

"This target has not been achieved yet. Testing in Indonesia is also not based on tracing results (epidemiological testing), but is still dominated by screening testing, such as for official trips or out of town," said Emi.

For information, Kompak consists of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI), the Indonesian Dentist Association (PDGI), the Indonesian Society of Public Health Experts (IAKMI), the Indonesian National Nurses Association (PPNI), the Indonesian Pharmacists Association (IAI), the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI). ), Indonesian Hospital Association (Persi), Indonesian Health Service Association (Adinkes).

Then, the Indonesian Complementary Traditional Health Professionals Association (PP Kestraki), the Indonesian Association of Medical and Laboratory Equipment Company Organizations (Gakeslab), the Association of Indonesian Medical Laboratory Technologists (Patelki), the Association of Indonesian Nutritionists (Persagi), and the Association of Herbal Medicine Entrepreneurs (GP Jamu). ).