Legislator urges quality assurance in hospital-based specialist doctor education programme

A member of Commission X of the House of Representatives (DPR RI), Adela Kanasya Adies, has urged the importance of maintaining educational quality in the implementation of the hospital-based residency programme for medical specialists. This is to ensure the acceleration of meeting the need for specialists without reducing the quality of graduates. According to Adela, the programme is a strategic step to accelerate the equitable distribution of medical specialists in various regions that still lack health workers. “I see the objective of this hospital-based specialist programme as very good, especially to accelerate the fulfilment of medical specialist needs in various regions. I greatly appreciate the strong spirit behind this policy,” said Adela in her statement in Jakarta on Thursday. During a Hearing Meeting of Commission X DPR RI with several ministries in Jakarta on Tuesday (23/6), Adela assessed that the success of the programme depends heavily on the readiness of teaching hospitals, especially in providing competent clinical educators and supervisors. “Medical specialist education depends heavily on the field learning process, including exposure to various types of cases. This must be continuously ensured so that the competence of graduates is maintained,” she said. Adela stressed that the government needs to ensure that students gain adequate and diverse clinical experience, including handling cases with different levels of complexity, so that the competence of the resulting medical specialists remains up to standard. In addition to maintaining educational quality, she also urged that the programme be genuinely directed at addressing the disparity in the distribution of medical specialists across various regions of Indonesia. She emphasised that the programme should be aimed at meeting the needs for medical specialists in disadvantaged areas. “The spirit of accelerating the fulfilment of medical specialists must not reduce the quality of education, which has been the foundation of health services. The quality of graduates must remain the priority,” she said. She also stressed the importance of ensuring that graduates of the hospital-based specialist education programme return to serve in the regions that need them, so that the goal of equitable health services can be achieved optimally.