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.