West Kalimantan Residents Do Not Need To Go To Malaysia For Treatment, Jokowi Guarantees Dr. Soedarso Hospital Is Super Modern

President Joko Widodo when inaugurating Towers A and B RSUD dr. Soedarso, Pontianak, Tuesday (9/8). (AMONG)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said, Dr. Soedarso Hospital, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, already has modern services so that local people do not need to go abroad for treatment.

"I checked there were 277 beds. I went to the operating room, and ICU, and I saw everything, it was super modern. So I remind you not to go out, here it is ready and enough to handle existing cases", he said when inaugurating the Tower A and B of Dr. Soedarso Hospital Pontianak, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, August 9.

President Jokowi admitted that he was sad to hear that Indonesians were seeking treatment abroad, such as in Singapore, Japan, the United States, or Malaysia.

In West Kalimantan, he heard that local people often choose to seek treatment abroad, namely in Kuching, Malaysia.

Overall, said Jokowi, the total funds flowing abroad in a year reached IDR 110 trillion from these overseas medical treatment activities.

"Therefore, when the Governor of West Kalimantan said to me, "Sir I ask for help from the central government, I will build the building, but ask for help from you, medical equipment", I answered right away, get up, tools I have prepared my health, I have spent IDR 205 billion. Medical equipment is approximately IDR 200 billion", he said.

According to the President, this is a cooperation between the central and regional governments to stop the outflow of funds due to medical service constraints

“We have learned a lot from the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 2.5 years. Seeing how our national health system looks like, which ones must be improved, which ones are slow, which ones must be accelerated, what facilities to buy, everything is visible, when we are suffering everything becomes visible", he said.