City-owned hospital sound despite crisis
City-owned hospital sound despite crisis
JAKARTA (JP): The four city-owned hospitals are still
economically sound despite the prolonged economic crisis, which
has severely hit almost all sectors of the economy, an official
has claimed.
The head of the service and expertise unit of the City Health
Office, A. Chalik Masulili, said Wednesday that the four
hospitals -- Koja in North Jakarta, Tarakan in Central Jakarta
and Pasar Rebo and Budiasih in East Jakarta -- could survive the
crisis because they were still receiving sufficient revenue from
patients.
He said the hospitals were able to maintain patient numbers
mainly because of their relatively low charges.
"The doctors' tariff can sometimes be half that charged at
private hospitals. Our room rate is also cheaper -- only Rp 9,000
(64 U.S. cents) per night for third class compared to between Rp
25,000 and Rp 60,000 per night at private hospitals."
He said the four hospitals received between 600 and 800
patients a day each with bed occupancy rates being maintained at
the normal level of 60 percent to 70 percent per month.
Masulili said many private hospitals had reportedly lost at
least 10 percent to 20 percent of their patients due to the
worsening economic crisis, which discouraged people from seeing
doctors or going to the hospital unless they became really sick.
"We assume that some of former private hospital patients have
turned to city or state-owned hospitals due to the latter's
cheaper charges. But we have not made any study on the phenomenon
so we can't give figures," he said.
Masulili added that as a general practitioner himself, he had
lost about 20 percent of his patients since early this year.
The prolonged monetary crisis has apparently only affected the
four city-owned hospitals to the extent that they are now forced
to pay for all their drugs, chemicals and equipment in cash and
in advance.
The hospitals were also affected by the soaring prices of
drugs, equipment and chemicals needed to support the medical
services, Masulili said.
He said the price of X-ray film had increased 200 percent to
about Rp 300,000 per pack of 25 exposures, nongeneric drugs 300
percent and the reagents (chemicals used for laboratory tests)
400 percent.
"This has led to an increase in the hospital's current
operational costs of between 200 percent and 400 percent compared
to July last year.
"But I assure you that it will not make us raise our tariffs."
Masulili said the hospitals tried to balance the higher costs
by minimizing the use of water, electricity, gas and medicine.
"It's not that we are cutting our services or giving fewer
drugs to save medicine stocks.
"We still maintain the quality of our services, we have only
stopped giving patients nonessential drugs. Whenever possible, we
also opt to give generic drugs so that patients can still afford
the medicine," he added. (cst)