Cipto Hospital needs bigger budget to cover operations

Cipto Hospital needs bigger budget to cover operations

JAKARTA (JP): The yearly budget allocated by the government to
the state Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital barely covers the
hospital's expenses as the number of poor patients who need to be
subsidized is increasing, a hospital executive said on Tuesday.

Hermansyur Kartowisastro, the hospital's director, said the
budget of approximately Rp 21 billion for the 1999/2000 fiscal
year was not enough. "It can only finance our activities until
December," he told reporters while commemorating the hospital's
80th anniversary.

"Even if we can survive in the coming months, we still have to
wait until next March for the new budget to pay last year's
debts," he said, adding that the hospital needed at least Rp 66
billion to run all its activities this year.

Hermansyur explained that his administration would cope with
the financial problems by asking for credit from the hospital's
suppliers like pharmaceutical and hospital equipment producers.
"But we can only get credit from a very few suppliers," he said,
without mentioning the name of the companies.

He said, however, the hospital would keep giving quality
medical treatment and services to patients as well as continuing
to improve its facilities in the old building located on Jl.
Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.

"We will build more comfortable rooms to provide better
services to lure middle and high-income patients who are able to
pay more so that we can afford to subsidize the less fortunate
patients," Hermansyur said, adding that regardless of their
financial accountability, "every patient will receive equal
treatment".

Hermansyur said the hospital had suffered financial losses as
it had to subsidize the treatment of poor patients, whose number
had markedly increased due to the economic crisis dogging the
country for two years.

According to the hospital's records, subsidies given by the
hospital increased from around Rp 5 billion in the 1997/1998
fiscal year to Rp 8.5 billion in the last fiscal year. (01)