Indonesian Ministry of Health strengthens the primary health service which aims to enhance the health status of Indonesian society.
The Health Minister, Nila F. Moeloek, said one of the efforts to strengthen the primary health service is the establishment of Primary Service Doctor which aims to enhance doctors competencies at the first level of health facilities and improve health facilities for society on primary service as well as decrease the number of referrals to hospital.
“The primary health service has to be strengthened, including on the competency of doctors at the first level of service,” said Nila on Monday (3/4) at Tentrem Hotel in Yogyakarta during International Conference on Indonesian Primary Health Service.
Nila said by strengthening the primary health service, the doctors are expected to be able to treat patients so they do not need a referral to a hospital or a specialist. Besides giving treatment, doctors at this primary service also can perform prevention and health promotion.
Therefore, Nila emphasizes the importance of strengthening the doctors at the primary service such as through the Primary Service Doctor program. This education program is stipulated in Law Number 20 in 2013 about Medical Education. This study program is established to prepare a suitably advanced education for doctors who work in the primary service. This education takes 2 years to complete.
“The length of time taken by doctors who have done practice for 5 - 10 years of their education background will also be counted so they just have to conduct an advanced study for 6 months due to their experiences and they will be evaluated just based on their competencies to be the Primary Service Doctor,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of National Primary Service Doctor Association, dr. Mora Claramita, MPHE., Ph.D. said the strengthening of the primary health service in Indonesia is still far behind. All this while, Indonesia still focuses on the enhancement of secondary health service (hospital) which spends much of national health budget and increases the number of people who go to hospital.
“The number of references is inverted between primary and secondary services. In international scope, the average number of secondary services is just between 5 - 10 percent, while in Indonesia, the number of references is more than 80 percent,” said dr. Mora.
According to dr. Mora, it is caused by the lack of health facilities due to the geographic condition in Indonesia. Moreover, it is caused by the minimum number of health facilities, competencies of doctors and health staff at the primary level as well as the quality of health service provider.