Physician calls for better emergency health services

JAKARTA (JP): A senior physician urged yesterday that pre- hospital care be included in health, social and life insurance policies to help improve the overall quality of emergency health services.

The head of the Indonesian Surgical Association's trauma committee, Dr Aryono Pusponegoro, said the government should encourage insurance companies to widen their coverage without adding the premium to insurance holders.

He argued that widening the coverage would help improve the overall quality of emergency health care.

"We need the (emergency health care) facilities apart from a good health insurance system," he said, adding that without the allocation of funds emergency medical services would not improve.

"The health insurance should pay for that," he told The Jakarta Post.

Speaking after a seminar on emergency medical care yesterday, Pusponegoro said pre-hospital care was currently not included in insurance policies, such as traffic accident insurance from the state-owned PT Jasa Raharja or health insurance from state-owned PT ASKES.

Physicians from the United Kingdom and Indonesia used the one- day seminar to exchange information on emergency medical services and equipment.

Another speaker at the seminar Dr Karjadi Wirioatmodjo said that improved emergency health services meant better training and education for medics and nurses.

Karjadi, a physician at the Dr. Sutomo Hospital in Surabaya, East Java, said Indonesia as a developing country until a few years ago primarily focused on maternal and children's health care, family planning and nutrition.

But with industrialization, health trends also changed. "The number of accidents, especially road accidents, increased dramatically," he said adding that this stimulated an increased interest in the development of emergency medical services.

While highlighting the need for better emergency medical services, Karjadi stressed the importance of preventing the likelihood of accidents.

He said the increasing number of casualties in accidents and at working sites resulted from a lack of awareness toward individual safety.

"The most important thing is to change their mind and be more careful," he said. (09)