Good News For Residents Of Eastern Surabaya, 2022 Will Have A Hospital

Illustration - The new building of RSUD Soewandhie in North Surabaya. ANTARA/HO-Public Relation Surabaya City Government

SURABAYA - Residents in the East Surabaya City area will have a regional general hospital (RSUD), after the proposed construction of the hospital is included in the 2022 Regional Expenditure Revenue Plan (RAPBD).

"The proposal to build a hospital in the East Surabaya area, precisely in Gunung Anyar, was included in the discussion of the 2022 RAPBD at the budget agency (banggar) meeting yesterday," said Commission A member of the Surabaya DPRD Arif Fathoni in Surabaya, as reported by Antara, Thursday, October 7.

According to him, his party has proposed to the Surabaya City Government to build a hospital in the eastern Surabaya area since 2020. The proposal is intended to ensure equal distribution of health care facilities in Surabaya.

However, he continued, the proposal for the construction of the RSUD in East Surabaya has only included the 2022 Surabaya Regional Budget. He hopes that the construction of the hospital can reach referrals for residents in the East and South Surabaya areas considering that in Central Surabaya there are already Soewandhi Hospital and BDH Hospital in West Surabaya.

"This hospital is very useful. So that residents or patients do not have to come all the way to the BDH Hospital and Soewandie Hospital," said the chairman of the Golkar faction of the Surabaya DPRD.

Furthermore, Fathoni assumes that no one predicts when the COVID-19 pandemic will end.

"The East Surabaya Regional Hospital can be built. Hopefully, it's part of risk mitigation when a new variant enters Indonesia, so that we don't stutter like yesterday," he said.

According to him, this is part of the anticipation effort because it is impossible for economic recovery to be carried out as long as the health resilience sector is still fragile. For this reason, it is hoped that the 2021 APBD will focus on efforts to develop health resilience.

"So that the APBD can be used to drive economic recovery and can survive the pandemic outbreak," said Fathoni.

Meanwhile, Banggar DPRD member, Agung Prasodjo, confirmed that the proposed construction of the RSUD has been included in the 2022 Surabaya RAPBD.

"During the Banggar meeting yesterday (6/10), the budget for the construction of the hospital was Rp80 billion. It has already been included in the 2022 RAPBD. It is likely that in November it will be auctioned," he said.