City to construct new hospital in Thousand Islands
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Officials in the Thousand Islands Regency announced plans on Friday to build a hospital to provide improved medical services for the 19,200 residents of the regency, but city officials indicated they might not approve the plan.
"Many residents complain that they have to dig deep into their pockets, between Rp 2.5 million (US$263) and Rp 3 million, for transportation costs just to reach nearby hospitals because there currently are no hospitals on the resort islands," the head of the regency's health office, Ida Bagus Nyoman Banjar, said during a hearing with City Council Commission E for people's welfare.
The regency has six public health centers, none of which have beds for overnight departments.
Residents who require hospitalization must take a costly ambulance boat to Koja Hospital in North Jakarta or Cengkareng Hospital in West Jakarta. The trip to these hospitals takes over an hour.
Banjar said Rp 15.1 billion had been allocated in the 2005 city budget to build a hospital in the regency.
Of this money, Rp 12.7 billion will be for construction costs, Rp 2 billion for the procurement of medical equipment and the remaining Rp 400 million for office equipment.
The two-story hospital will occupy 2,447 square meters of land on Pramuka islet. It will have 10 in-patient rooms and a maternity room.
"We already have 12 doctors. We will need four specialists for the new hospital, including an internist and a surgeon," he said.
He said the University of Indonesia's School of Medicine had promised to help staff the hospital with new graduates.
According to him, the hospital will be subsidized by the city administration, but he did not specify the size of the subsidy.
However, the commission's chairman, Dani Anwar, called on the administration to delay the construction of the hospital, which he said was not an urgent need.
"We believe the medical needs of residents can be taken care of by the six public health centers in the regency. The relevant issue, I think, is how to upgrade the services of these centers rather than building a new hospital," Dani said.
Dani referred to a Ministry of Health decree that says a new hospital can be constructed only if it will serve a population of at least 25,000.
Separately, Governor Sutiyoso said his administration was still studying the health services required by regency residents, most of whom are fishermen.
"We are looking into the possibility of a 'mobile hospital', which would be better able to reach residents of the sprawling islands in Jakarta Bay," Sutiyoso said.