Bitter experience at TNI clinic

Bitter experience at TNI clinic

As a civil servant in the Indonesian Army, I exercised my
right to free family medical services for my ailing child on
March 14, 2003. It was a bitter experience, as we were, in
effect, rejected at the Jakarta military health facility's Ridwan
Maureksa Hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at about 8 p.m. I was told by the
intensive care unit (ICU) officer that since it was my third
child, I was not entitled to free health care. I urged that my
child be treated, even though I did not meet the relevant
criteria, but the officer kept asking me to show case treatment
documents, which I had not brought along.

After my persistent request, my almost unconscious child was
examined but we were told to go home as there was nothing
serious. I took the doctor's prescription to the facility's
dispensary and was told to collect the medicine free of charge. A
physician asked me to stay but I decided to leave that very
night.

I took my child to Almustajam Hospital in Bekasi instead,
where the ICU doctor in charge diagnosed the ailment as typhoid,
requiring inpatient treatment. After four days of medical care,
at reasonable cost, my child recovered.

SARTI
Bekasi, West Java