Indonesia Faces Doctor Shortage, Prabowo Opens New Medical Schools and Considers Foreign Physicians

President Prabowo Subianto has revealed that Indonesia still lacks hundreds of thousands of general practitioners and specialists. He made the statement directly in his Financial Note speech at the DPR Building on Friday (14/8/2026).

He said that Indonesia currently still needs an additional 84,781 general practitioners, 127,580 dentists, and 55,712 specialists. According to him, this need for doctors must be met immediately so that healthcare services for the public can run optimally.

“To strengthen this effort, as I have reported, we must face and resolve the problem of the shortage of our general practitioners and specialists,” said Prabowo.

According to him, the government has currently opened nine new medical faculties across Indonesia. Not only that, the government has also opened 170 specialist and sub-specialist study programmes, both university-based and hospital-based.

“We will strive for even more of these,” said Prabowo.

He even proposed that doctors from abroad be allowed to practise in Indonesia for a limited period. This is done solely to meet the need for doctors in Indonesia.

“We are considering whether we can invite doctors from other countries to practise here for limited periods. Because if we wait for 187,000 dentists to graduate, we might have to wait for four presidents after me,” he said.

According to Prabowo, the government must innovate to meet the public’s need for access to healthcare services. Therefore, the policies adopted must not be merely normative.