Following WHO Standards, East Kalimantan Provincial Government Still Needs 2,000 Doctors

Illustration of specialist doctors (ANTARA)

SAMARINDA - The East Kalimantan Provincial Government needs around two thousand doctors to meet the ideal portion of 4,000 health workers in accordance with the standard ratio of the world health organization or the World Health Organization (WHO).

Head of the East Kalimantan Health Office, Jaya Mualimin, said that there were two thousand doctors. This number, only fulfills 50 percent of the ratio of the need for doctors for the total population of East Kalimantan, which is close to four million people.

"It's just that East Kalimantan has four million people. That means ideally we need four thousand doctors. Meanwhile, we only have 1,900 of our doctors. So we still need around 2 thousand more doctors," said Head of the East Kalimantan Health Service, Jaya Mualimin, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, April 4.

Jaya revealed, based on WHO compiled from Index Mundi, in 2019 Indonesia only had 0.47 doctors per 1,000 population. The ratio of Indonesian doctors is poor, far below the WHO standard which stipulates a minimum of 1 doctor per 1,000 population.

The indicators for the fulfillment of health workers are measured by the number of doctors. The ideal ratio for fulfilling Health Human Resources (HRK) is one doctor compared to a thousand residents.

The gap in the lack of doctors, continued Jaya, must be filled as soon as possible. One of the efforts that can be done, is to add a doctor's education center.

Jaya said that the Faculty of Medicine in East Kalimantan was only owned by Mulawarman University (Unmul). The largest university in East Kalimantan is only able to produce a maximum of 75 doctors a year.

"If that's the case, when will our doctor's ratio be met," complained Jaya.

Fortunately, two universities in East Kalimantan will soon open a new Faculty of Medicine (FK). Namely, the University of Muhammadiyah, East Kalimantan (UMKT) and the University of Balikpapan. The addition of this educational center is expected to increase the number of doctors produced within the region.

"We hope that the two new FKs will be able to accelerate the fulfillment of general practitioners and specialists. Unmul will also open a new specialist study program. Lungs and anesthesia," said the former Director of RSJ Atma Husada Mahakam.

Moreover, with the presence of IKN in East Kalimantan, the challenge of meeting doctors is getting bigger. The increasing population to the IKN area must also be accompanied by the fulfillment of medical personnel.

"IKN is a lever factor. There are workers and civil servants who will move here. So the ratio of the need for doctors will definitely increase," he explained.

Efforts to fulfill doctors were also carried out by asking for the distribution of doctors from the Ministry of Health.

Such as the Healthy Nusantara Program for sending doctors to remote and outermost areas. As well as the use of specialist doctors placed in several hospitals as needed.