City hospitals told to threat poor dengue patients for free

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With dengue fever claiming at least 15 lives this year, the city administration has instructed state and city hospitals in the capital to treat poor patients for free, regardless of whether or not they have proof of their status.

"Governor Sutiyoso has instructed 17 state and city hospitals to treat class III patients for free, even if they have no welfare card (Gakin)," Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said at City Hall on Monday.

Class III patients are entitled to the most basic services and facilities provided by the capital's hospitals.

The City Health Agency briefed representatives of all hospitals operating in the capital about the policy on Monday.

Fauzi said that class III patients would also be entitled to free services at 50 private hospitals if they could show their welfare card.

Welfare cards are granted by an independent institution appointed by the health agency, based on recommendations at neighborhood, community and subdistrict level, as well as from community health centers.

"We call on all hospitals here to take the same measures we applied last year, that is to downgrade, if necessary, vacant rooms in class II, or even class I, should class III rooms be full," he said.

City-owned Tarakan hospital in Central Jakarta, meanwhile, said on Monday that poor patients were being accommodated in its corridors due to overcrowding.

"The hospital has 27 dengue fever patients. Two of them are now being treated in the corridor," said head of the hospital's nurses Atiyah.

She said the hospital had advised some patients to move to other state and city hospitals where they had a chance of receiving better service, but most refused.

Many poor patients prefer to be hospitalized closer to home, rather than paying higher transportation costs to and from hospital.

City Health Agency head Abdul Chalik Masulili says the capital is only one step away from being put on the highest alert level to dengue fever as some 1,400 people have contracted it so far this year.

He added that the administration had allocated a total of Rp 100 billion (US$11.2 million) to curb the disease from spreading further.

Last year, the city recorded its highest ever number of dengue fever cases, with about 82 deaths and over 5,000 people falling sick from the mosquito-borne disease.

The disease, for which there is no vaccine, is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which usually breeds in still water.

Symptoms of the disease are a fever of more than 38 degrees Celsius, headaches, severe joint pain, nausea and sometimes a skin rash.

The incubation period for the disease is between eight and 10 days for adults and six days for children.