Govt to tighten control on donated medicines
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi promised on Tuesday to tighten controls of the distribution of subsidized and donated medicine following a report by a watchdog group about the illegal sales of medicine on the black market here.
He admitted that the ministry was "less than careful" about it, according to the ministry's spokesman Budhi Yahmono, who accompanied Sujudi during a meeting on Tuesday with the House of Representatives' Commission VII, which deals with population and welfare affairs.
"Some medicine in a pharmaceutical storage in Sukabumi, West Java was stolen. That could be the (subsidized and donated) medicines that are sold in some markets here," Budhi told The Jakarta Post.
Sujudi suggested that perhaps there could have been some medicine left in pharmaceutical storages that were taken by some officers during the recent floods on the pretense of helping flood victims.
On Monday, the Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation revealed its survey findings that half of the subsidized and donated medicine for low-income people was allegedly sold on the black market.
The foundation chairman, Dr. Marius Widjajarta, told the Post that he alleged widespread collusion between officials from the Ministry of Health, the City Health Agency, drug distributors, producers and public health centers in the sale of those items.
During a meeting with the Foundation, Takashi Aoki and Noriatsu Kono of the Japanese embassy said they would have to oversee the distribution of any donations to Indonesia in the future.
Each year since 1998 the Japanese government has donated 320 million yen (about US$2.7 million) worth of medicine. The Ministry of Health was given the responsibility to distribute the medicine, according to the officials.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the City Health Agency, Evy Zelfino, told the Post that they did not know of any violations of the medicine distribution by public health centers.
"We found no violations on the ground or of the monthly reports," she said.
However, several community health centers across the city charge their patients, mostly low-income ones, more than the official fee of Rp 2,000 for both medicine and medical treatment for each visit due to, they said, an "increase of the medicine prices".
Yenni, 36, a patient at a community health center in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta said before 1997 the health center charged Rp 2,000 for administration fees and medicine.
"I used to pay Rp 2,000 for both the medicine and administration for each visit but then after 1997 I usually have to pay Rp 10,000 for each," she told the Post.
Yenni and her family prefer to visit the health center when they are sick as it charges a much lower fee than hospitals and private doctors.
Another patient at a community health center in Cilandak area, Utami, said she had to pay a Rp 3,000 administration fee and between Rp 5,000 to Rp 15,000 for the medicine.
"It depends on the medicine. If you want brand-name medicine from the doctor, you have to pay more," she said, saying that she sometimes chose to buy brand-name medicine as she believes it was of better quality than generic medicine.
Dr. Marius accused most health centers around the city of violating the city bylaw No. 9/2000 on medical treatment in a health center.
"The bylaw stipulates a patient in a health center is required to pay Rp 2,000 for each visit. That is supposed to cover the medical treatment and the medicine," he told the Post.