Tradition and values live on at RSCM<\/p>\n
By Ida Indawati Khow<\/p>\n
Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital used to provide free
\ntreatment to the poor, and at one stage even paid women to have
\nbabies there. Its turbulent history is testament to the struggles
\nthe institution endured to uphold the hospital's values on care
\nand treatment. This is the 48th article in a series on old and
\nprotected buildings in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Elderly Jakartans may lament what they call the
\n"good old days", when they could get free medical treatment -- a
\nluxury they cannot even think of now.<\/p>\n
In those days, the city they called Batavia boasted the
\nCentral Civil Hospital (now known as Cipto Mangunkusumo General
\nHospital or RSCM in Central Jakarta) which offered poor Batavians
\nfree services.<\/p>\n
In fact, that generous hospital, which between 1919 and 1942
\nwas called Centrale Burgerlijke Ziekeninrichting (CBZ), had more
\nto share than that. It even gave 7.5 guilders to women who had
\ntheir babies there.<\/p>\n
All the incentives were deemed necessary because the hospital
\nhad a dreadful image: It treated prisoners, prostitutes and
\npeople found ill on the streets.<\/p>\n
The 7.5-guilder incentive was offered to lure wives to have
\nmodern treatment because women usually had their babies at home
\nwith the help of traditional midwives.<\/p>\n
"It was not surprising that people had a low opinion of the
\nhospital and were horrified at the thought of being treated
\nthere," Rukmono and M.P.B. Manus write in Sejarah dan Perjuangan
\nRSCM-FKUI (The History and Struggle of RSCM-FKUI).<\/p>\n
Such negative public opinion was understandable because the
\nfirst hospitals established by VOC Dutch trading company or the
\nDutch East Indies government in the old walled city of Kota (in
\nWest Jakarta), were located near a prison and most of the
\npatients were prisoners, they say.<\/p>\n
CBZ was founded especially to serve as an educational hospital
\nfor students of Stovia (School tot Opleiding van Inlandsche
\nArtsen), a school for Javanese medical doctors on Jl. Abdul
\nRahman Saleh in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The project began in November 1919. The hospital was
\nestablished on a plot of land at the intersection of Oranje
\nBoulevard (now Jl. Diponegoro) and Groote Postweg (Jl. Salemba).<\/p>\n
On the same plot, a new building for Stovia, which later
\nbecame the present School of Medicine of the University of
\nIndonesia, was built.<\/p>\n
Better equipped<\/p>\n
While CBZ was the place where the poor were nursed for free,
\nthere were two other major private hospitals for paying patients:
\nthe Protestant Queen Emma Hospital (presently PGI Cikini
\nHospital) and the Roman Catholic St. Carolus Hospital, all
\nlocated in the same general area.<\/p>\n
According to Batavia Als Handels, Industrie and Woonstad
\n(Batavia as a Commercial, Industrial and Residential Center), the
\nthree hospitals had the most modern equipment at their disposal,
\nsuch as Roentgen installations and electric lighting.<\/p>\n
During the same period, the city had also special hospitals
\nlike the Military Hospital (Gatot Subroto Hospital on Jl. Abdul
\nRahman Saleh), the Chinese hospital Jang Seng Ie (now Husada
\nHospital in the Mangga Besar area in West Jakarta), the hospital
\nfor children and pregnant women of Boedi Kemoeliaan on Jl. Budi
\nKemuliaan, Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
CBZ continued to grow. Rooms for specialists, like
\ndermatologists, psychiatrists and dentists, were built all around
\nthe complex. More and more people went there for treatment.<\/p>\n
As its popularity grew, the hospital hosted the Fourth Eastern
\nMedical Congress in August 1921, and the institution began to
\nreceive international recognition.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, in 1922, people could no longer enjoy the free
\nmedication at the hospital due to the economic situation.<\/p>\n
In the course of time, the hospital had often had its name
\nchanged, depending on who ruled the country.<\/p>\n
During the Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945 it was
\nrenamed Hospital of Ika Daigaku Byoming medical school. It was
\nthen that the top post was held by an Indonesian doctor, Asikin
\nWidjajakusuma, together with a Japanese professor, Tamija.<\/p>\n
Rukmono and M.P.B. Manus note that during the Japanese era the
\nhospital was in bad shape because of Japanese neglect. This
\nresulted in a high mortality rate due to a lack of medicines and
\nmedical staff.<\/p>\n
Historian R.Z. Leirissa, in an article RSCM di Masa Perjuangan
\nKemerdekaan (1942-1950) (RSCM during the Independence Struggle
\n1942-1950) tells of how the Japanese doctors also had poor
\nmedical knowledge.<\/p>\n
"For example, a typhoid patient died after being permitted to
\neat ice cream by a Japanese doctor," he said.<\/p>\n
During the struggle for independence between 1945 and 1949,
\nthe hospital, which then was renamed Rumah Sakit Oemoem Poesat
\nNegeri (RSON, the State General Hospital) played a major role.
\nDoctors and other medical personnel went to the battlefield.<\/p>\n
Leirissa noted that the doctors and all other staff went to
\nthe Karawang-Bekasi war front in West Java to treat war victims.<\/p>\n
"The hospital also provided a 'heroes ward' for the Karawang-
\nBekasi victims. The growing demand for medical treatment resulted
\nin a lack of medical equipment and sometimes banana bark was used
\nfor bandages," he said.<\/p>\n
The Dutch tried in vain to take over the hospital when they
\ncame here again after Indonesia proclaimed independence on Aug.
\n17, 1945. In 1948, it became the Indonesian "fortress" in the
\ncity, which had been conquered by the Dutch, Leirissa says.<\/p>\n
The Dutch took it by force in August 1949 but some 1,000
\nIndonesians doctors and staff who refused to cooperate with the
\ncolonial government left the hospital.<\/p>\n
"Meanwhile, patients left by becak (pedicabs) and were treated
\nat doctors' houses," Leirissa says, referring to the doctors
\nhousing complex on Jl. Kimia in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the 1949 Round Table Conference in The Hague, in
\nwhich the Dutch agreed to relinquish all state institutions to
\nthe Indonesian government, the hospital came under Indonesian
\nownership again.<\/p>\n
It was not until Aug. 17, 1964 that it was renamed Cipto
\nMangunkusumo General Hospital, after the nationalist medical
\ndoctor, Tjipto Mangunkusumo, who dedicated his life to the poor.<\/p>",
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