Health Ministry Responds to Viral Outcry Over Healthcare Workers' Empathetic Comments to Patient

The alleged case of unempathetic comments posted by a number of healthcare workers towards a patient named Yurizal Tri Chaerawan has drawn a wave of public criticism. The controversy intensified after it was learned that Yurizal reportedly passed away on 31 July 2026. Many members of the public have questioned the attitude of healthcare workers in responding to the patient’s post. Yurizal had written a thread on Threads on 22 July 2026, recounting that he had waited eight hours for treatment and had yet to receive a room. “8 hours and still no room, I don’t want to expose the hospital because I’m using BPJS,” Yurizal wrote. However, the post was met with cynical and unempathetic responses from various accounts. Upon further investigation by social media users, some of these responses were suspected to originate from accounts belonging to doctors and healthcare workers. The account @erudarahaadini commented with a sarcastic tone, stating, “Your profile picture looks like you ‘have’ but in reality, you ‘haven’t’? Haven’t some brain cells.” According to netizen investigations, the account owner, whose real name is Elda Putri Rahardini, is an alumna of Gadjah Mada University and an LPDP scholarship recipient. Another comment came from @bennychrstn, who, based on netizen tracing, is allegedly an alumnus of the University of Indonesia’s medical faculty currently serving in East Nusa Tenggara. The comment read, “If it’s full, where do you want to be moved? Onto the floor? It has nothing to do with BPJS or not, the number of patients is automatically high, not just you. If you want to be moved quickly, the mortuary is always empty. It’s annoying, healthcare workers and even the government through BPJS are trying to help, but the public acts like this.” Besides doctors, unempathetic comments were also found from Widhiyarini Pangestika via the account @widhiyarini, who made a distressing statement suggesting the patient could get a room faster by cutting his artery. Netizen tracing revealed that Widhiyarini is a registered nurse in the IVF nursing field at Harapan Kita Hospital.