All funds for medical services easily checked, minister says
All funds for medical services easily checked, minister says
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek
stated on Sunday that all state funds earmarked for community
health centers could be easily checked to ensure that they
reached their intended destinations.
"All funds are transferred from the central post office to
local post offices, from which they reach the community health
centers," Farid said.
"Funds no longer go through the ministry or its provincial and
regency offices. The control (of the funds) now is very
stringent," he said after a breaking of the fast meal at his
home.
He added that all grants and other assistance were channeled
directly to targeted groups by the donors.
"The Ministry of Health is only notified and gives the
necessary data," he said.
The ministry, he said, had the system, the supervision
structure and management of the funds.
The ministry has received Rp 366.9 billion from the budget for
medical programs and trillions from the social safety net
program.
Several donors have separately contributed funds and other
assistance to communities, through, among others, non-
governmental organizations in the form of medicine and medical
equipment.
In the face of the worsening economic crisis, Farid said, the
ministry was working on preparations to decentralize its
management.
"That's what we're preparing now... (also) the coordination
among ministries (such as) the Ministry of Home Affairs and the
Ministry of Finance."
He said various programs, such as the supervision of the
health of mothers and children, would be decentralized.
"Such programs must be local and specific; the management must
deal with details such as aspects of geography, local culture...
so all this is now a 'bottom-up' approach."
The integrated health centers catering to women and children
were one example, Farid said.
In the wake of alarming reports of malnutrition among children
and gloomy predictions for the unborn, who have been dubbed the
lost generation, health experts have raised the alarm for the
urgent need to improve services at neighborhood health centers to
better monitor the health of children and pregnant women.
"Our priority is to save women and children to avoid protein
deficiency and other (ailments), and to prevent the 'lost
generation' caused by the crisis," Farid said.
"We have conducted several programs to save women and
children," he said.
Next year the ministry will launch a community health care
guarantee for the poor.
The program will encourage active care promotion among the
poor, rather than function as a conventional insurance program,
he said, "for which we have no funds".
It will be launched in January, with preparations now underway
for the distribution of funds reaching Rp 1 trillion, he said.
Distribution will involve foundations, cooperatives working with
community health centers, Farid said.
Areas to be allocated health funds, he said, are 150 regencies
with dense populations.
"I'll box the ears of the provincial heads of offices (of the
ministry) if they don't do their jobs properly," Farid said.
(edt)