Residents stand by doctor in opposing transfer order

BOGOR (JP): An official at the Ministry of Health's Bogor office rejected a demand on Thursday by residents of Mulyaharja village that their favorite doctor is not transferred.

"Doctor Abdul Mughni is not a permanent employee of the health ministry. He's been working under a contract agreement," Aisjah Wan Granie, head of the Bogor health ministry office, said in a hearing with members of Bogor Council's Commission B for social and health affairs.

The hearing was held following a protest staged by local residents on Monday over a decision to assign Doctor Mughni to another hospital in nearby Tanah Sareal subdistrict.

Aisjah cited a health ministry decree which stipulates that a nonpermanent employee can not be assigned to work at a small auxiliary clinic like the one in Mulyaharja village.

"A nonpermanent employee must be assigned to a community health center (Puskesmas) or to a hospital," she said without elaborating.

Aisjah also said that it was not her office which had made the decision to transfer Mughni.

"It was the West Java provincial office of the health ministry which assigned him to a new post through a decree dated Dec. 17 last year," she said.

She admitted that the hospital where Mughni is set to work had yet to be built.

"The West Java provincial office is working on the development of the hospital. It needs his help to run the hospital," she said.

Mughni, who also attended the hearing, rejected Aisjah's statement that the Mulyaharja clinic was only an auxiliary clinic.

"The previous decree that assigned me to the Mulyaharja clinic stipulates that the clinic is a community health center," he said.

He asserted that he was ready to be reassigned at the Mulyaharja clinic, saying there was a job there he had yet to complete.

"I have yet to complete a recovery program for children suffering marasmus," he said.

Sofyan, a local resident, suggested that Doctor Mughni should be maintained at the clinic.

"He has saved the lives of 10 out of 17 marasmus patients recently," he said.

The council's commission B chairman, Eman Sulaeman, said he would discuss the possibility of reassigning the doctor to the clinic with Bogor Mayor Iswara Natanegara. (24/asa)