Focusing on maintenance of medical equipment

Focusing on maintenance of medical equipment

JAKARTA (JP): The high cost of repairing damaged medical equipment is due to a lack of qualified maintenance personnel, officials say.

An executive at the Directorate General of Medical Care under the Ministry of Health, Ronald Hutapea, said on Tuesday "Only 44 percent of technicians graduated from technical high school and only about 2 percent hold bachelor degrees."

In response to whether poor maintenance had led to fatalities, Ronald, the director of medical facilities, said the only inconvenience felt by patients was longer waiting periods.

He was addressing a seminar on maintenance of medical facilities at hospitals. These include electrocardiographs, CT scanners, incubators and ultrasound equipment.

Lack of maintenance leads to high costs in fixing such equipment, he added.

The ministry's director general of medical services, Ahmad Djojosugito, said medical services in Indonesia lagged behind other countries.

Describing the "vicious circle" of poor medical services, Ahmad said dependence on imported facilities made the situation worse.

Increased awareness among patients and the new consumers law, Ronald said, "should promote improved maintenance to avoid malfunction (of equipment), which would likely be followed by a lawsuit."

To date, training for medical facilities maintenance has not included information on better management of the facilities, he said.

With better maintenance and management, "Maintenance departments (at hospitals) should no longer be cost-spending departments but should become revenue centers," Ronald said. (08)