RSCM urged to improve medical services

RSCM urged to improve medical services

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The mission of the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital
(RSCM) is to provide comprehensive and affordable medical
services to all walks of life.

However, the state-run hospital, which celebrated its 82nd
anniversary last Wednesday, is not only famous for the variety of
services that it offers and the skills of its specialists and
surgeons, but also known for the poor quality of its services and
dilapidated condition.

As many as 80 percent of the patients in the hospital are
people from the middle and lower income groups and, according to
the hospital's newly appointed director, Merdias Almatsier, these
patients are the main drain on the hospital's budget.

The hospital, which was established in 1919 during the Dutch
East Indies' days, frequently faces constraints in providing
primary services due to its financial situation, he told
reporters when asked about the numerous complaints voiced by
patients.

He explained that the hospital had to subsidize patients of
limited means by up to Rp 1.5 billion (US$150,000) per year. He
did not elaborate on the hospital's revenue sources and
operational costs per year.

"We face pressures from our social function, which is a drain
on our budget and prevents us from delivering excellent
services," Merdias said.

As an answer to this, the Ministry of Health has agreed to a
merger of the RSCM and 12 other hospitals so as to set up a non-
profit state company in 2002.

"We will retain our social function, but with the new
structure we will be able to manage our own budget so as, we
hope, to be able to provide a better service." he explained.

Yoke Kamdani, who came all the way from Merauke, Irian Jaya,
with her mother who suffers from cancer of the tongue, complained
about the hospital's administrative staff.

She told The Jakarta Post that it was often her mother who was
the last to be attended to by a doctor as those who paid the
administrative staff a Rp 10,000 bribe were the first to be
served.

Moreover, her mother's health insurance card (ASKES) was often
rejected when they wanted to purchase medicines in the hospital's
pharmacy.

"My mother has to receive laser treatment every day for one
whole month. Imagine if we always have to be the last even if we
arrived before the others," Yoke said.

However, she acknowledged that the doctors were helpful and
prompt in providing assistance.

At the other end of the 134,672 square meter hospital,
34-year-old Kaswan was wandering around confused with his younger
brother.

As he tried to ask a passing nurse about the location of the
eye clinic, the nurse kept on walking as though the two men did
not exist.

Kaswan, who was visiting the hospital to purchase an
artificial eye like to the one he has been using for the past 10
years, was then told by the nurse to look on the third floor as
she rushed off without even bothering to stop and look at the
man.

Kaswan and his brother then went to the third floor but soon
returned to the ground floor as they had failed to find the eye
clinic.

"The doctors are nice though ...," Kaswan told The Jakarta
Post, adding that the nurse might also have been confused as the
hospital was very large.

"The eye cost me Rp 40,000 ten years ago ... but if it costs
any more than that today, I think I'll have to go home empty-
handed," he said.

Marno, whose wife received treatment at the hospital last
week, said that the hospital needed to improve its facilities and
the attitude of the nurses.

"The poor conditions are clear, for example, by the fact that
inpatients' relatives sleep overnight in the hospital's corridors
or in front of their rooms. They don't trust the nurses," he
said.

"Its rooms and facilities are no longer fit for patients," he
added.