Chronic Disease Patients Hope for No More Hospital Rejections
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Dialysis Patient Community (KPCDI) hopes for a commitment from hospitals and health facilities to no longer reject services for kidney failure patients or other chronic diseases following the guarantee of reactivating membership for National Health Insurance (JKN) aid recipients (PBI JKN).
KPCDI General Chairman Tony Richard Samosir stated that dialysis services are ongoing to sustain life, so delays in treatment due to administrative hurdles pose a fatal risk to patient safety.
“We urge that in the future there are no more small obstacles like membership termination that lead to hospitals rejecting patients. In accordance with the mandate of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health, health facilities are obliged to provide first aid and must not refuse patients,” he said during a press conference after a limited meeting with the Social Minister and the Director of BPJS Health in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Based on data held by KPCDI for 2024, there are approximately 136,000 active dialysis patients in Indonesia. Tony noted that this group is highly vulnerable to falling into the abyss of poverty because they must undergo therapy two to three times a week for life at very high costs.
He assured coordination with the Ministry of Health and BPJS Health to impose strict sanctions on health facilities proven to violate regulations.
“No hospital may refuse patients who need emergency treatment. We ask the public to report if they find such practices, because providing care without regard to payment status is a legal requirement,” said the Social Minister, familiarly known as Gus Ipul.
Gus Ipul explained that the government is currently consolidating data to ensure that 96.8 million APBN PBI recipients and 47 million APBD PBI souls are truly on target.
As a precautionary measure, the Ministry of Social Affairs is also opening avenues for cooperation with philanthropic institutions such as Baznas to support underprivileged citizens facing treatment cost barriers. This is done to ensure the President’s directive that no citizen’s health is neglected due to economic problems.
“So basically we can resolve what is needed by citizens to obtain healthcare. I think that’s it, I want to add a little,” he remarked.