Minister opens traditional medicine center
Minister opens traditional medicine center
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Sujudi yesterday inaugurated a unit for traditional medicine at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Jakarta, now an increasingly popular alternative to modern medicine.
The Center for Development and Application of Traditional Medicine is the third such facility in Indonesia that incorporates both modern and traditional medicine under one roof now that the government gives formal recognition to the important role of traditional medicine in society.
The first two facilities were opened this year, one in Surabaya and one in Yogyakarta. The government plans to open 12 such centers before the end of the century.
Previously, the activities of traditional healers and their medicines escaped the government's supervision. The government's policy changed after Sujudi returned from a visit to China, where modern and traditional medicine coexist side by side, allowing patients a choice.
Under the new policy, the Ministry of Health has begun controlling the flow of traditional medicines, many of which have been on sale in Indonesia without government supervision. Now the government has imposed restrictions, such as prescribing minimum standards to protect consumers.
At the inauguration yesterday Sujudi emphasized the need for those involved in traditional medicine to provide qualified and safe services to the public.
"Traditional drug manufacturers should be able to provide scientific support for their products and ensure that they are safe for consumption," he said, stressing that this is the only way that traditional medicines will gain wide acceptance.
"Most modern doctors are reluctant to administer traditional medicines to their patients because they haven't been analyzed scientifically," he said.
Local manufacturers of traditional medicines must also be able to compete with foreign products that have found their way into Indonesia, he said.
The minister installed the members of the center's management board led by Hadisantoso.
Sujudi also inaugurated the Laboratory for Heart Disease at RSCM and signed the plaque to mark the construction of a new building which will house the hospital's main medical unit.
The University of Indonesia's School of Medicine, RSCM and Eijkman Foundation also signed a cooperation agreement to expand the Medicine Science and Technology Center at the corner at the intersection of Jl. Salemba and Jl. Diponegoro.
Sujudi accepted, on behalf of the hospital, sophisticated equipment for conducting ear, nose and throat (THT) surgery from Hearing International of Japan. (31)