Doctors avoid assignments in remote areas

JAKARTA (JP): The unemployment rate of medical school graduates remains high because they refuse assignments in remote places and fight for the few jobs in towns, an official said yesterday.

Health ministry personnel bureau chief Munarso said that the government has given doctors the freedom to work in outer islands, especially in isolated areas.

They may open a practice after they complete their mandatory service in areas determined by the government.

"Medicine is an independent profession. They can open their own practice or work for private hospitals or medical clinics," Munarso said.

The high rate of unemployment for medical school graduates has been under scrutiny in the mass media. Observers say the joblessness is ironic because Indonesia needs a lot more doctors.

Official figures show that the population-doctor ratio stood at 100,000:12 in 1994, meaning there was one doctor per 8,333 people that year.

It takes a graduate at least nine years to become a general practitioner, six are spent in school and another three in mandatory practice in the field.

A government regulation of 1988 requires fresh graduates to conduct two to five years mandatory practice in government- appointed places.

Unemployment of medical school graduates was raised recently by Chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association Azrul Azwar. He said thousands of them are jobless.

Munarso said the government is able to employ only a small number of doctors due to limited job openings.

"About 2,000 doctors complete their mandatory practice every year, but only about 500 of them can be admitted into the civil service," Munarso said.

A health ministry poll in February showed that 86 percent of graduates want to become civil servants.

"The government can't employ all doctors," Munarso said, saying job openings are not determined by his ministry, but by the office of the State Minister of Administrative Reforms and State Employees Administration.

He denied reports that doctors who have completed their mandatory service and failed to become civil servants have little chance of pursuing specialist studies.

"It's not true. In fact, of 744 seats available for doctors who want to become medical specialists, only 286 are for civil servants. The rest are for physicians from private hospitals or medical clinics," Munarso said.

Many fresh graduates are so discouraged by the prospect of conducting mandatory service in remote areas that they choose to wait until they get the chance to do it in Java or Bali.

"Most fresh graduates want to do their mandatory practice in West Java or Jakarta," Munarso said.

In fact East Nusa Tenggara, Central Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, East Timor, Irian Jaya and Maluku, are badly in need of doctors, he said.

To attract doctors to the remote areas, the government has guaranteed they will get civil servant status if they are willing to be sent back on permanent assignment to the provinces. (ste)