Govt ups budget for hospital services
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Ministry of Health has increased this year's budget for the provision of hospital services to the needy by 50 percent to Rp 500 billion (US$59.1 million) from Rp 326 billion last year.
The secretary of the ministry's Directorate General of Medical Care of the ministry, Eddie Naydal Roesdal, said on Monday that half of the funds would be distributed to state hospitals between March and April. The rest would be disbursed in August and September.
"The assistance will be given based on the hospitals' expenditure reports," he told The Jakarta Post.
The funds would be taken from the compensation for the reduction in fuel subsidies allocation for the health sector, which amount to Rp 1 trillion so far this year. The additional funds include Rp 300 billion for community clinics, Rp 130 billion for the generic medicines provided by the clinics, Rp 35 billion for Hepatitis B vaccines and Rp 35 billion for support activities.
The government funds would be disbursed despite the fact that around 36 percent of the financial aid distributed to 502 recipient hospitals last year remained unaccounted for.
"It is always a problem to get reports from the hospitals," said Roesdal. As of August 2003, only 236 hospitals had submitted their routine accounts on the medical treatment provided to the poor.
Many regency hospitals were unable to use all the funds provided to them, said Roesdal further. The unused funds would be carried over into this year's budget.
Some hospitals, however, spent too much, thereby running up deficits.
"We are allocating Rp 40 billion this year to cover these deficits, which should be enough for almost all of them," said Roesdal.
Some 17 percent of Indonesia's 215 million people are categorized as poor, according to the Central Statistics Agency. They are supposedly eligible for free hospital treatment as long as they can produce welfare cards (Gakin).
However, many of the needy are unable to get welfare cards as they do not have identification cards.
To avoid this problem, the ministry hopes to change the procedures in the future to exempt third class-ward patients from all charges for services provided in a third class ward, said Planning and Budgeting Bureau chief Gunawan Setiadi.
"We are still examining this possibility," he said, adding however that the cost of such a new departure would be high.
"Therefore, local administrations would be required to shoulder some of the burden," said Setiadi.
Roesdal said that the health ministry was drafting a presidential decree on regional public hospitals, providing that local administrations would be responsible for providing part of the funds to be used in providing hospital treatment for the needy.
However, no specific figure would be stipulated, he added.