Chronology of IDAI Chairman Dr Piprim's Dismissal by Health Minister Budi Gunadi

Jakarta, VIVA – Paediatric cardiac consultant Dr Piprim Basarah Yunarso has claimed he was dismissed by Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin. News of Dr Piprim’s sacking was conveyed directly through his personal Instagram account.

The Chairman of the Indonesian Paediatric Association (IDAI) also issued an apology to all child patients at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM), medical students at the University of Indonesia, residents, aspiring paediatricians, and fellows training as paediatric cardiac consultants, following his dismissal.

In the video, Piprim explained that two months before being forcibly transferred by the Director General of Advanced Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Dr Azhar Jaya, he had been summoned by a senior professor. His senior colleague reportedly told him that if he did not cooperate with the collegium currently under the Ministry of Health’s authority, he could be transferred.

At the time, he said he was merely carrying out the mandate of the National Congress of Paediatric Science in Semarang, which had resolved that the Indonesian Paediatric Collegium must remain independent.

“He told me, ‘Prim, if you refuse to cooperate with the collegium established by the Health Minister, you will be transferred,’ whereas I was simply carrying out the mandate of the National Congress of Paediatric Science in Semarang that the Indonesian Paediatric Collegium must remain independent,” he said, as quoted from his personal Instagram account on Monday, 16 February 2026.

Piprim stated that the decision for the Indonesian Paediatric Collegium to remain independent had also been reinforced by a Constitutional Court ruling which stipulated that collegiums must be independent in nature. However, he said his insistence on collegium independence ultimately resulted in a forced transfer to Fatmawati General Hospital.

“But my struggle, together with colleagues at IDAI and professors who wanted this collegium to remain independent, resulted in a forced transfer, and because I refused a transfer that did not comply with the meritocracy principles governing civil servant transfers, I was subsequently dismissed by the Health Minister,” he said.

Meanwhile, a decision document bearing the title ‘honourable discharge not at own request as a civil servant’, signed by Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and dated 2 February 2026, states that the grounds for Dr Piprim’s dismissal relate to violations of civil servant disciplinary regulations.