Indonesia eyes hospital profits
The Indonesian government plans to build five “world class” hospitals catering for rich citizens who spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on treatment overseas.
Officials say profits from the new facilities will be used to improve healthcare for the tens of millions of Indonesians living below the poverty line.
Jakarta estimates that up to 200,000 Indonesians seek treatment abroad with the vast majority going to neighbouring Singapore.
Data from the Singapore Tourist Board show that in 2006, the last year for which figures are available, 410,000 foreigners visited the city-state for medical treatment and spent S$1.3bn (£458m, €578m, $845m).
Dr Tjahjono Gondhow- iardjo, the development director of Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta – the country’s largest and the first earmarked to build a world class wing – said the aim was to “capture 25 per cent to 30 per cent of this market”.
“Just having world class buildings does not guarantee success; we have to have the systems too,” he said. “Here at Cipto we started implementing change two years ago, so we are confident we will be ready when the international wing opens.”
The other hospitals earmarked for the international wings are in Bali, Bandung, Semarang and Jakarta.
Equipment at some departments at Cipto, such as radiology, is on a par with anything available in the region. But analysts and diplomats are sceptical about the initiative’s likely success, citing the government’s failure to address public health issues.
Indonesia has suffered so many human deaths from bird flu that the government no longer automatically announces them in order to minimise bad publicity.
An independent United Nations-commissioned report published this month found that the maternal mortality level among Indonesia’s poor was three to four times worse than for the rich; and Indonesian government data show only 46 per cent of the nation’s children are fully immunised.
Private hospitals are also ramping up the quality of their care, with Lippo Karawaci hospital becoming the first in Indonesia to achieve accreditation from the US-based Joint Commission International, one of several organisations that classifies hospitals.
Sari, an Indonesian who took her mother to Singapore for treatment, said Indonesia’s main challenges were service levels and the quality of doctors. “There are excellent doctors here, but there are not nearly enough of them, so they are overloaded,” she said.
“Also, many doctors and nurses don’t communicate well. They think patients don’t need to know what’s happening or that they won’t understand, so they come across as arrogant.”
Officials say profits from the new facilities will be used to improve healthcare for the tens of millions of Indonesians living below the poverty line.
Jakarta estimates that up to 200,000 Indonesians seek treatment abroad with the vast majority going to neighbouring Singapore.
Data from the Singapore Tourist Board show that in 2006, the last year for which figures are available, 410,000 foreigners visited the city-state for medical treatment and spent S$1.3bn (£458m, €578m, $845m).
Dr Tjahjono Gondhow- iardjo, the development director of Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta – the country’s largest and the first earmarked to build a world class wing – said the aim was to “capture 25 per cent to 30 per cent of this market”.
“Just having world class buildings does not guarantee success; we have to have the systems too,” he said. “Here at Cipto we started implementing change two years ago, so we are confident we will be ready when the international wing opens.”
The other hospitals earmarked for the international wings are in Bali, Bandung, Semarang and Jakarta.
Equipment at some departments at Cipto, such as radiology, is on a par with anything available in the region. But analysts and diplomats are sceptical about the initiative’s likely success, citing the government’s failure to address public health issues.
Indonesia has suffered so many human deaths from bird flu that the government no longer automatically announces them in order to minimise bad publicity.
An independent United Nations-commissioned report published this month found that the maternal mortality level among Indonesia’s poor was three to four times worse than for the rich; and Indonesian government data show only 46 per cent of the nation’s children are fully immunised.
Private hospitals are also ramping up the quality of their care, with Lippo Karawaci hospital becoming the first in Indonesia to achieve accreditation from the US-based Joint Commission International, one of several organisations that classifies hospitals.
Sari, an Indonesian who took her mother to Singapore for treatment, said Indonesia’s main challenges were service levels and the quality of doctors. “There are excellent doctors here, but there are not nearly enough of them, so they are overloaded,” she said.
“Also, many doctors and nurses don’t communicate well. They think patients don’t need to know what’s happening or that they won’t understand, so they come across as arrogant.”