Health building inaugurated

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Sujudi inaugurated yesterday the operation of Fatmawati Hospital's new health service facility in its compound in South Jakarta.

At the inauguration ceremony, Sujudi said that he expected the new six-story building, named Teratai, to help maintain Jakarta's position as the best city in Indonesia for medical services for both poor and rich people.

The new facility, built at a cost of Rp 2.2 billion (US$830,000) on a 2,700-square-meter plot of land, provides medical services ranging from gynecology and childbirth, to neonatal intensive care.

Heyder Tadjoedin, the hospital director, said that another six-story building is currently being constructed in the same compound. This Rp 2.4 billion project is expected to be completed by February next year, he said.

Deputy governor for economic and development affairs Tb.M. Rais, who was also present at the inauguration ceremony, hoped that the new building would be useful to city residents.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said earlier that Jakarta has managed to reduce the infant mortality rate from 32 per 1,000 births in 1993 to 28 per 1,000 births this year.

He also said that the city is included in the list of top five provinces successfully running the family planning program, having reduced the population growth rate to 2.09 percent this year from 2.41 percent in 1994. (07)