Red Cross's hospital in Bogor due for renovations soon
Red Cross's hospital in Bogor due for renovations soon
BOGOR (JP): The worn-down, 60-year old Indonesian Red Cross
Hospital in Bogor will soon undergo a face-lift in a drive to
improve services and provide more decent facilities to its
patients.
Chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Ibnu Sutowo told
reporters yesterday the renovations and additional buildings
would cost some Rp 35 billion ($16 million), most of which was
expected to come from donations.
"We also expect to obtain Rp 100 or Rp 200 million from bank
loans, which we hope can be repaid gradually from our operational
earnings," he added.
Since the hospital's financial condition did not allow the
project to be finished in a single stage, the renovations will be
completed under a seven-phase plan that will run until 2000, he
said.
The renovations will officially commence next week in a
ceremony attended by First Lady Mrs. Tien Soeharto.
Founded in 1931 by the Dutch Red Cross group, the hospital
has only been renovated once in 1964.
The facility is legally a private institution but employs
civil servants including government physicians. It is the only
PMI hospital in Indonesia, although it has a smaller unit on
Galang Island, in Riau, which was opened to treat Indochinese
refugees.
Ibnu admitted the hospital's poor management was the major
reason for its poor physical performance and service. However, he
also acknowledged that there had been improvements made over the
last four years, after a workers' cooperative was established in
1990.
It has also started to turn a profit, a major breakthrough
considering it had been operating in the red for most of its
existence. Now, Ibnu said, it can afford to provide pension funds
and low-cost housing for some of its employees, which now total
655 persons.
Oversees donations have also helped fund the procurement of
more modern equipment, Ibnu said.
Emergency unit
The renovations will mainly focus on improving and expanding
the hospital's emergency unit and ambulance service.
Located just outside the gates of the Jagorawi toll road, a
large number of the hospital's patients are victims of highway
accidents which tend to peak over the weekends. Three to four
deaths are said to occur in the emergency units everyday.
"Just as important as the hospital care is how to quickly and
safely get the victims to the hospital. This is why we have more
ambulance units than other hospitals," Ibnu said.
PMI Hospital has six ambulances, including one standing by at
the scenic Puncak highway -- the road between Bogor and Bandung
which is often crowded at weekends.
The renovations will take up all the land belonging to PMI,
which measures 37,601 square meters. Currently only 6,722 sq.m.
are occupied by the hospital's buildings.
Statistics show that Bogor's residents need at least 2,137
hospital beds but, currently, only 673 are available.
However, the new buildings will add least add 500 beds to this
number.
The renovations will include a general facilities unit,
comprising rooms such as kitchens and religious quarters, a
seven-story VIP section, emergency and polyclinic units,
operation rooms, office buildings and a training center.(pwn)