IDI plans public complaints bureau

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) plans to set up a bureau in charge of handling public complaints about the behavior of certain physicians.

IDI chairman Azrul Azwar said yesterday that people fed up with doctors' professional service could file their complaints with the bureau beginning in January.

He said that the bureau was set up because the public has little recourse and usually must address their complaints to other less-specific bodies, such as the Indonesian Consumers Agency (YLKI).

Last year, YLKI charged that doctors reaped big profits from ignorant patients by performing "unnecessary" surgery or using expensive equipment without patient consent, among other things.

Azwar said that IDI could not pretend that such complaints had never been made by the public.

He said that the association had no authority to take legal action against its delinquent members, even if they were guilty of malpractice.

"What we can do is reprimand the doctor and expel him from the IDI. The best we can do is to recommend that the government withdraw his license," he said.

On charges that many doctors overcharge their patients, Azwar said the association could not determine how much is considered "overcharging" because there is no standard on medical fees.

"Some people want the fees be standardized and some cynics say doctors are like traders when they put up their fees," he said.

He said that the decision to establish the bureau was the result of a recent survey on the public perception about doctors conducted by the IDI and the Higina health magazine.

Sixty-eight percent of the 15,000 respondents earn between Rp 1 million (US$ 450) to Rp 5 million a month, and 54 percent of those were women.

The survey revealed that the public still considered doctors as less informative and more "arrogant" to their patients. The respondents said that doctors only told patients how to take the medicines.

He said IDI recognizes the problem of less attentive doctors.

"Actually the regulation requires that doctors having more than two practice sites should have separate permits," he said.

Azwar expressed concern that almost 32 percent of the respondents often switch doctors because they're not satisfied with their service.

"This practice is no good because examinations by different doctors will result in different diagnoses for their illness," he said.

IDI also plans to hold surveys once every six months with respect to both patients and doctors.

IDI and the Higina magazine have also designated a "complaint month", encouraging the public to air their gripes over doctors' services. (anr)