Dismal hospital services for poor

Dismal hospital services for poor

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ibu Mardani had been waiting at Cipto Mangunkusumo General
Hospital (RSCM) for two-and-a-half hours. It was lunchtime but
she could not go and get some food.

"I was asked to wait for the doctor. I have been waiting since
10 a.m. A nurse told me the doctor is in a meeting," she said,
"but several patients who came after me have already gone into
the doctor's room and have left."

She sat on the floor in her kain -- a traditional piece of
Indonesian cloth that is wrapped around the lower body, now worn
mostly by older women. She has been suffering painful headaches
for the last several days.

"I cannot do much. This is the only hospital that my family
can afford," said Mardani. "I have no choice. What I need is to
get medicine for my headache."

Tati, a mother of three, told The Jakarta Post that last month
she brought her feverish son to RSCM's emergency room.

"I was in a panic. I did not have enough money. None of the
hospital employees were willing to help us. The nurse asked me
for a down payment.

"Then I had to leave my son with my sister-in-law for a while,
to go find some money. After I finally secured several hundred
thousands of rupiah, a doctor finally came and looked at my son,"
she said.

Sumedi, from Senen, Central Jakarta, came to the hospital to
get his eyes checked. He said most of the nurses treated him
coldly.

"Most of the nurses are very unfriendly and uncommunicative,"
he said. "When I asked them to explain something, they used
medical terms I couldn't understand."

Tati also complained about the shabbiness of the hospital.
"RSCM may be a hospital for poor people, but its in bad condition
and some areas are not up to the standards of a hospital."

The Post found on Monday several people sitting on the floor
along the hospital's corridors. Some were lying down on the
wooden benches in front of the treatment rooms, while others sat
on the floor because there were no more chairs.

One patient was sitting in her wheelchair in a corridor,
accompanied by a friend, trying to get some fresh air. A
continuous flow of people passed through the corridor, talking
and laughing.

Next to the woman in the wheelchair was a large pole covered
with flyers and posters, some of which had expired more than a
month ago. It looked more like a bus stop wall than a hospital.

An old man spat on the tiled floor and walked away. A patient
was sleeping in a hospital bed in front of the nurse's station in
the cardiology ward, while many people milled around. Near the
elevator on the fourth floor, an old engine was lying on the
ground, covered with oil and dust, no doubt waiting for
treatment.