1 Million Indonesians Annually Seek Medical Treatment Abroad

TheIndonesia.co - The Ministry of Health stated that the number of Indonesian citizens going abroad, especially to Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, for medical treatment reached one million per year. Indonesia loses 11.5 billion US dollars each year.

"Every year, we lose 11.5 billion US dollars because many Indonesians, about 600 thousand to one million people, seek medical treatment abroad," Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono was quoted by Antara on Thursday, March 25, 2022.

Harbuwono conveyed the statement during a public lecture at the 31st Congress of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) and the 22nd Indonesian Doctor's Wives Association (IIDI) in Banda Aceh. To this end, he affirmed that the Ministry of Health is committed to conducting health transformation that encompasses improving the quality of referral services in a bid to reduce the number of citizens going abroad for medical treatment.

"We have to improve the quality of referral services. We have to improve public trust so that we can reduce the number of people, who seek treatment abroad," he said.

Harbuwono noted that the transformation of referral services would focus on mortality from major diseases, such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, cirrhosis, tuberculosis, and several other diseases.

According to Harbuwono, starting from 2021, the Ministry of Health has been building primary hospitals for underdeveloped and border areas as well as outer islands. He affirmed that the ministry had also targeted the construction of more than 100 hospitals until 2024.

The Ministry of Health outlined its commitment to the six pillars of health transformation comprising primary services in the form of handling immunization, health screening, stunting, and Maternal and Child Health (KIA) and Family Planning (KB).

The other pillars are the referral service pillar, specifically the handling of nine priority diseases, with the highest mortality, followed by the health resilience pillar, specifically the research and industrialization of drugs and medical devices in the country.

Furthermore, the health financing pillar focuses on financing based on basic health needs. The other is the pillar of human resources (HR) for health, specifically production and distribution for addressing the shortage of 172 thousand doctors, and the health technology pillar that is realized through the application of digital technology and biotechnology.