City to expand 18 Puskesmas

The Jakarta Health Agency plans to expand the capacities of three hospitals and 18 community health centers, known as Puskesmas, to cope with the increase in the number of third-class inpatients following the introduction earlier this year of the national health insurance (JKN) program.

“Hospitals and Puskesmas in the city lack rooms for third-class inpatients because more citizens have been coming for free healthcare treatment after the introduction of the JKN program,” agency head Dien Emmawati told The Jakarta Post.

Under the program, patients are entitled to free treatment at third-class facilities in selected hospitals throughout the country.

Dien said that her agency would expand the third-class intensive care units (ICU) and critical care units (CCU) of the Koja General Hospital in North Jakarta, the Pasar Minggu General Hospital in South Jakarta and the Budhi Asih General Hospital in East Jakarta.

After the expansion, the ICU and CCU of Koja would be able to accommodate an additional 400 patients, those of Pasar Minggu 450 patients and those of Budhi Asih 200 patients, she said.

Moreover, Dien said that her agency would also expand the capacities of 18 of its 344 Puskesmas in the city, so that their services
would be equivalent to those of type-D hospitals.

Type-D hospitals are generally supported by medical specialists and equipped with at least 40 rooms for third-class inpatient treatment for minor diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid and scarlet fever, she said.

According to Dien, only 29 of the city’s puskesmas are currently equivalent to type-D hospitals.

“The 18 puskesmas will each have at least 40 rooms for inpatient treatment. Therefore, the city will also have an additional 700 inpatient rooms once the expansion is complete,” she said.

Dien said that following the implementation of the JKN program, a quick solution was needed to accommodate the growing number of third-class patients.

She added that building new hospitals and puskesmas would be expensive and take a long time to complete, while the expansion of the three hospitals and 18 Puskesmas would only need minor improvements and equipment procurement.

According to the head of the agency’s regional health insurance unit, Theryoto, the expansion of the hospitals and Puskesmas is urgent because of over 150 public and private hospitals in the city, only 88 support the JKN program.

Furthermore, because procedures for JKN patients to receive free treatment at some private hospitals were very complicated, many of them chose to look for free treatment at public general hospitals, he said.

“Public general hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of JKN patients. Therefore, an expansion is urgently needed,” Theryoto said.

Dien said that besides the lack of inpatient rooms, Jakarta was also still short of specialized hospitals for patients with heart disease and cancer. “Jakarta has only one cardiovascular hospital, Harapan Kita Hospital, and only one cancer hospital, Dharmais Hospital,” she said.

“Therefore, the Jakarta Health Agency is planning to build a type-C cardiovascular hospital near the agency’s office in Central Jakarta, and will modify the Sumber Waras Hospital in West Jakarta into a cancer hospital ,” she said. (sumber: http://www.thejakartapost.com)