671 Puskesmas In This Country Do Not Have Doctors, The Ministry Of Health Needs To Add 5,000 Doctor Graduates Every Year

Photo by Oluwaseyi Johnson on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) seeks to increase the number of doctor graduates from universities as many as 5,000 people per year so that the need for doctors throughout Indonesia can be fulfilled.

"Currently there are still shortages in distribution in some places, because of the number of our doctors, production is still lacking. But we will increase it, adding 5,000 doctor graduates every year," Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwo said in Banda Aceh, Thursday 24 March quoted from Between.

This statement was made by Dante Saksono Harbuwo on the sidelines of a public lecture at the 31st Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) Conference and the 22nd Indonesian Doctor's Wives Association (IIDI) in Banda Aceh.

Dante explained that Indonesia is still facing the problem of equitable distribution of human resources (HR) in health. In fact, there are 671 health centers in Indonesia that do not yet have a doctor, and 5,644 health centers also do not have a complete set of nine types of health workers.

One of them, as in Maluku and Papua, is that 50 percent of the puskesmas in the area do not yet have a doctor.

"I heard that in Aceh there are also some who don't have doctors," he said.

In Indonesia, there are also 155 regional general hospitals (RSUD) in all districts/cities that still do not have seven specialist doctors. Therefore, the increase in the quota of doctor graduates is considered important for equal distribution of the needs of doctors throughout the country.

"This is still an obstacle, which we must transform to increase the number of medical graduates, which was 12,000 per year in a short time to be immediately increased," he said.

Therefore, his party has agreed with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia to finance the allocation of education to regional children who are undergoing education as doctors through LPDP funds, who will then return to work in their original areas.

"We have also coordinated with the Ministry of Education and Culture to increase the quota. Currently, it has been agreed to increase the quota of 5,000 per year, for the quota at universities where doctors will be educated," he said.

In addition, another issue that is being addressed for the Indonesian health sector is the unequal distribution of health human resources. For example, health centers in eastern Indonesia still lack doctors, while in some other areas there is an oversupply.

Then it is also related to the low retention of health workers in several areas, efforts to redistribute health workers in regionally owned health facilities, to the problem of the lack of competency-based training for health workers.

"Transformation of health human resources supports the health system through efforts to accelerate and distribute health workers through needs planning programs, increasing quantity, equitable distribution and improving quality," concluded Dante.