Charity provides patients with an extra dose of TLC

By Gedsiri Suhartono

JAKARTA (JP): Ever feel upset because the doctor you visit does not seem to care enough to explain your symptoms or his or her diagnosis? Felt distressed because your illness is not clearing up despite repeated attempts to cure it?

Or have you been on the receiving end of an "I hope you will stop being a pest" look from the aloof physician?

If your answer to any or all of the above is "yes", there are two fitting explanations for your aggravation.

First, you know that your right to sufficient information is violated. And, second, you are simply dissatisfied with another unanswered question in your quest to find an answer to your "what's wrong with my...?" complaint.

An unaccommodating bedside manner has led to criticism of some doctors. Worse, skeptics, and realists, may avoid doctors, medical practitioners and medical facilities altogether.

A field initially deemed committed to serve humanity -- obligated, some would say -- is often no different than an enterprise exploiting people to fill up their coffers. Some choose to suffer through the pain rather than deal with an inhospitable medical profession.

Budi, a mid-career professional who has suffered occasional abdominal muscle spasms for eight years, gave up his search for a cure.

"I was diagnosed in and out, went through various tests and X- rays, and spent quite a fortune. Not once during that process did I receive any eloquent, medical or technical explanation for all those tests," he complained.

The Foundation of Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment, inaugurated last month, hopes to end the continuing cycle of abuse of health consumers' rights. It also wants to remove many negative sentiment toward the field of health and medical practices by bridging the communication gap with consumers.

And many people remain ignorant of their rights in the health field.

The idea for the foundation came primarily from several conscientious health and medical practitioners, who observed the weak position of health consumers.

"Their needs (for treatment and medication), in many cases, are immediate. The current condition leaves consumers only to surrender to necessity of seeking immediate treatment," said Marius Widjajarto, chairman of the foundation.

The foundation's team of experts groups medical practitioners from various disciplines, legal experts and consumer rights advocates. The foundation also works closely with the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) to seek counsel on ethical and medical technicalities.

"We figure it's better for us, medical professionals, to clean up the mess made by irresponsible people in our profession than to have it be done by others outside the profession who might not understand how things in the medical field works," said Widjajarto, who is also a medical practitioner.

He slams several recent television ads promoting telephone medical diagnosis, which is also costly and difficult to account for. Professional doctors, he said, need to go through four steps of interacting with the patients before they can come up with a diagnosis.

Two weeks after its inauguration, the foundation has eight clients. Widjajarto said most of the cases involved disputes arising from misunderstanding or lack of communication.

"We will try to act as mediators by bringing together conflicting parties and talking through their problems," he said, adding a court case would be a resort if a settlement could not be reached. The foundation is exploring establishing cooperation with the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).

The foundation charges Rp 10,000 in administration fees to clients. Nurhasan, also a practicing doctor who is the first secretary at the foundation, said the fee covered correspondence and case filing.

The foundation is a non-profit organization with the vision to empower health consumers to know and acquire their rights. Most staff members are volunteers.

Widjajarto, quoting the United Nations Consumers Guidelines and other European programs, cites five rights of consumers.

They are the right to the protection of health and safety, right to be protected from economic interest, right to be reimbursed from suffered damage, right to be informed and educated, and right to be heard and receive counsel.

Taken a step further, those rights expand to encompass the consumer right to a second medical opinion (every doctor is responsible to provide as elaborate and sufficient information to other doctors whose opinion is sought by a patient), and the right to choose the types and brand of medicine according to financial capability.

Topping the foundation's long-term agenda is informing consumers about their rights.

"Consumer ignorance of their rights is lamentable," Widjajarto said.

He said even the elaborate sciences of therapy, medicine and treatment contain risk, and patients should be availed of all sorts of information on his or her illness. Before going through any treatment, medication or other medical gadgets, patients are entitled to have access and information on the necessity and ramifications of recommended treatment.

In practice, observes Widjajarto, many medical practitioners and hospitals tend to neglect informing their patients.

In other cases, they might also charge the patients more than the fair price.

Take Satrio's account of having to go through a whole series of CAT scans, laboratory and allergy tests at a private hospital in South Jakarta for chest pains.

"It costs me nearly a million (rupiah). A doctor friend of mine said that fair and honest treatment to have a chest X-ray would only costs me Rp 30,000," Satrio said.

Incidents like this have led many of the haves in Indonesian's society to opt to go abroad for medical treatment. Pricing, obviously, is not their greatest concern. Instead, it's the satisfaction of being treated well, given a broad understanding of one's condition and even being allowed to choose the brand of medicine prescribed by doctors.

The foundation faces a challenge in getting the word out about what it does, quite an undertaking during this highly charged period of apprehension and uncertainty. It is doubly difficult as the foundation's office in a three-story building located at Jl. Senayan 39, South Jakarta, does not indicate its mission.

"We are not sure if we would be levied and asked for fees if we put this sign up. We don't have much money to deal with those issues now," said Widjajarto as he showed a 45 X 100 cm copper insignia of the foundation to The Jakarta Post recently.