Doctors avoid assignments in remote areas

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)