Regional hospitals urged to improve public services

Regional hospitals urged to improve public services

Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi has asked regional hospitals
across the nation to improve their public services and avoid
commercialism in managing their hospitals.

Addressing the opening of the three-day National Congress of
provincial and regional hospitals here on Sunday, Sujudi admitted
that lack of funds, professionalism and managerial systems had
been hampering local hospitals from optimizing their potential as
public health organizations.

Representatives of 415 local hospitals around the country are
attending the congress, which started on June 23 and will end on
Tuesday.

"The management of provincial and regional hospitals has
already been transferred to the regional authorities, but the
central government is still responsible for monitoring the
systems," the minister said.

Sujudi said the central government still allocated ample funds
to support the operation of regional hospitals, to implement the
social safety net for health programs, and for the development
and renovation of hospitals.

"The fund will be channeled and managed by the regional
administration," he added.

The transfer of authority from central to local government is
expected to encourage local hospitals to be more independent and
efficient.

Under two ministerial decrees issued in 2001 by the Ministry
of Health and the Ministry of Home Affairs, provincial and
regional hospitals are under the auspices of governors or regents
together with local legislative bodies.

Previously, local hospitals were controlled by the Ministry of
Health's provincial offices, which were blamed by many for
introducing bureaucratic procedures.

"This means that any local hospital should be able to provide
its best service to the public without having to wait for
instructions from the central government," the minister said.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno, who also attended the
conference, added that many local hospitals, especially those
operating in remote places, have not yet been able to provide
even basic health services to the public.

"I have found that some hospitals are managed by unskilled
people with no background in medicine or management," he said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Indonesian Local Hospital
Association (ARSADA) Umar Wahid confirmed that the majority of
local hospitals were still relying on the government's meager
subsidies.

"Only 120 out of the 415 local hospitals in Indonesia are
self-managed. This means that these 120 hospitals are allowed to
manage their own revenues and do not have to distribute them to
the provincial government's treasury agency. The other 295
hospitals must distribute their income to the provincial and
regional governments.

"The 120 self-operated hospitals still focus their services on
low-income patients by implementing a cross-subsidy system," said
Wahid, who is a younger brother of former president Abdurrahman
Wahid.