Sitanala to stop ex-lepers' rations

Sitanala to stop ex-lepers' rations

TANGERANG: Sitanala Hospital deputy director Dr. JP Handoko
Soewono said the hospital had decided to stop providing monthly
rice rations to former leprosy patients from December.

"We operate as a hospital not as a social institution to
distribute handouts. That's why we decided to stop the rations,"
he told The Jakarta Post here on Friday.

He said that the ration used to consist of a number of staple
foods, including rice, cooking oil, milk, and instant noodles.

But since 1997, when the hospital was opened to the public, it
has offered reduced rations of just 10 kg of rice per month for
each selected former patient.

To qualify for assistance, the selected former patients, who
number only about 100, must receive a monthly income of less than
Rp 200,000 (US$21.01). Those who receive more than this amount
per month are excluded from the handouts.

There are about 1,000 former leprosy patients who mostly
live in a two hectare landsite called Serba Guna ex-leper complex
behind the hospital.

Handoko said that the former patients were called
ex-lepers because they had passed a supervision period of more
than one year, while those who had been under hospital
supervision for between six months and a year were described as
leper patients. -JP