JakartaGlobe-Jan 5
Indonesia gets around 12,000 medical school graduates every year but few will have advanced medical training in a specific area while there is a disproportionate number of specialists working in urban areas. “The shortage of specialist doctors cannot be solved merely by adding the number. We must ensure a fair distribution of their presence across the country,” Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) Chairman Adib Khumaidi said during a visit to the Jakarta Globe newsroom on Thursday. The country of 273 million has only around 54,000 specialist doctors and they are heavily concentrated in provinces across Java and Sumatra, or in rich provinces like East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. “This won’t happen if the government imposes a moratorium on medical practice licenses in crowded districts,” Adib said. Of 95 medical faculties across the country, only 20 have extended specialty programs. “We are still lacking at least 37,000 specialist doctors,” Adib said. There are around 4,700 obstetrics and gynecology specialists, 900 of them work in Greater Jakarta, according to Ari Kusuma Januarto, who heads the national association of ob-gyn specialists. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said separately a lack of cardiologists and pediatricians contributed to the thousands of deaths among children annually. The minister said 4.8 million babies were born every year in Indonesia and one in every 100 newborns has a heart problem. “The health ministry is working together with all stakeholders including the private sector on a speedy process to produce a lot more cardiologists in Indonesia,” he added. Read more at: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/shortage-of-medical-specialists-worsened-by-unequal-distribution
