Patient information difficult to access at hospitals

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"My father was told he was 'seriously ill' and needed to be hospitalized. After almost a week of treatment, though, I still don't know what he is ill with," complained Diani (not her real name).

One night, Diani's father, "David", found he could not breathe. Diani took him to a hospital in South Jakarta and the doctor there decided that he had to be hospitalized.

Since then, her father has been receiving treatment at the hospital, but up to now, no clear information has been provided by the doctors or staff as to her father's condition.

"What I know is that my father has to take several kinds of medication every day, and that he still needs to stay in the hospital," said Diani, who is, understandably, confused.

Diani is not the only one who is experiencing difficulties in procuring information from doctors as to the condition of their family members, who are in-house patients at a Jakarta hospital.

Complaints abound from patients or their families, that some doctors of various hospitals were not willing to provide details on a patient's condition.

"Or, if they do, they do it in medical terms, and not in layman's terms," said Diani.

Dandy (not his real name), a newlywed, also complained about how complicated it was for him and his wife to find out about the results of her pregnancy test.

"We visited a gynecologist in a hospital in Central Jakarta. Friends told us that he was one of the best gynecologists in town, and also a well-known one," said Dandy.

On their first visit, Dandy's wife was asked to take a urine test. Later, they found out that the test was not meant to check for pregnancy, but for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

After they received the result, Dandy's wife was asked to meet an internist. The internist said Dandy's wife had an STD -- without elaborating on the type of STD -- and prescribed some medicine totaling Rp 215,000 (about US$24).

"I complained to the gynecologist that what we wanted to know was whether my wife was pregnant, and he only said that a urine test wasn't necessary because it wasn't accurate. Then he offered an ultrasound for more accurate results," said Dandy. "Later, he said that he detected no signs of pregnancy in my wife's womb."

Dandy and his wife then switched to another gynecologist in Menteng, Central Jakarta, and found out that she was one-month pregnant.

"We spent about Rp 600,000 for nothing at that hospital. I no longer trust famous doctors or hospitals," said Dandy.

In the meantime, chairman of the Indonesia Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI) Dr. Marius Widjajarto told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that Indonesian health consumers had the right to access a patient's health records.

"Law No. 8/1999 on consumer protection includes health services. Consumers deserve to receive information, to choose, to be heard, to receive support and assessment," said Marius.

But Marius also said that many consumers were not yet familiar with the law because it was implemented only on April 20, 2000.

"We still need to communicate it and educate the public a little more," he said.

YPKKI has handled 154 medical cases so far. Ninety-four were resolved through mediation and one through court.