More health experts sought

PADANG, West Sumatra: The country needs at least 22,500 medical experts to improve the people's health, Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek said.

"Currently, there are only 2,500 to 3,000 medical experts across the country," he was quoted by Antara on Thursday.

Needed are nutritionists and experts on sanitation and the environment, health-related economy, health policy and laws, he said.

He said current medical schools were able to produce 500 health experts per year. "If we rely on that figure, we could only meet the demand in the next 40 years."

The minister called on universities to open schools of public health to meet the demand. Only the University of Indonesia and Bandung's Padjadjaran University have the schools. (edt)