Poor health development lamented
JAKARTA (JP): Former cabinet minister Emil Salim yesterday called for reform and more funding for health development.
An observer of health issues, Emil said certain policies, such as limiting the number of doctors employed as civil servants, were the cause of Indonesia's poor health record compared with countries such as Cuba or Sri Lanka.
"The limited funds allotted to development in the health sector are a result of the government's lack of political will," he told hundreds of medical experts at a four-day national congress of the Indonesian Hospitals Association yesterday.
"A country's health status is not determined only by economic factors, but by (the government's) political decisions," said Emil, formerly the minister of population and of environment. He is a respected economist and a professor at University of Indonesia.
"A political statement, testifying that without health we are nothing, is very important. Health is not a small matter. It's the goal of development," he said.
Sri Lanka allots 2.7 percent of its GDP for health, Cuba 3 percent, while Indonesia allocates 0.7 percent of its GDP to the health sector.
He criticized the zero growth policy of the Ministry of Health, under which only a limited number of doctors can become civil servants. This policy also applies to those who have completed their mandatory service in remote areas after graduating from medical school.
"Who wants to become a doctor in a very remote area, with an uncertain future, low income and lack of facilities, when you can have everything in big cities," Emil said.
He said it's impossible to ask doctors to work in difficult places just to demonstrate their loyalty and dedication to the country.
Doctors doing mandatory service at easy-to-reach, government- appointed places are paid Rp 500,000 (US$212.7) monthly. Those in remote areas are paid Rp 805,000 while those in very remote areas receive Rp 1,009,000.
"The whole system should be overhauled to enable the country to meet future demands in health development," he said.
Minister of Health Sujudi opened the congress yesterday at the 1996 Hospital Expo, which was attended by 96 foreign and domestic participants. Also attending were association chairperson Samsi Jacobalis and secretary-general Nico A. Lumenta.
Emil suggested the government pay incentives to doctors working in remote areas. He said some regions, including East Nusa Tenggara, Central Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, East Timor, Irian Jaya and Maluku, are badly in need of doctors.
The high rate of unemployment among medical school graduates, mostly caused by their reluctance to be posted in remote areas, has been under public scrutiny. Observers say the joblessness is ironic because Indonesia needs more doctors.
Official figures show the population-doctor ratio stood at 100,000:12 in 1994, one doctor per 8,333 people that year. (ste)