Many Indonesians seek medical help abroad. Some 30-40 percent of foreign patients in Singapore at any one time are Indonesian.
Mount Elizabeth Hospital (www.mountelizabeth.com.sg) in Singapore is often referred to as the Indonesian Hospital due to the high number of Indonesian patients passing through its doors.
Many Indonesians seek medical help abroad. Some 30-40 percent of foreign patients in Singapore at any one time are Indonesian.
Mount Elizabeth Hospital (www.mountelizabeth.com.sg) in Singapore is often referred to as the Indonesian Hospital due to the high number of Indonesian patients passing through its doors.
When asked why they seek medical treatment abroad, many Indonesians say the health care sector in Indonesia is poor and the price of medical help abroad is acceptable considering its quality.
Neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia are now aggressively promoting their health care services in Indonesia, as can be seen in advertisements with attractive slogans such as "affordable health check-ups" or "health tourism".
The Indonesian government appears oblivious to all this. It has also paid little attention to the sales of illegal alternative medicines and questionable medical techniques in their own. In cities you can see banners displayed advertising non-surgical cures for cataracts, medicines to treat cancer and programs that claim to make people lose a considerable amount of weight in a week.
The skills and attitudes of health care professionals working in Indonesia is not poor, but the system adds to the dilemma. As patients tend to go directly to specialists, the treatment they receive is often not holistic. For example, if an overweight person visited a nutritionist, they may be diagnosed with an eating disorder, while if the same patient visited a psychiatrist, they may be diagnosed with depression. It would be best for such people to visit a general practitioner before they sought more specialized treatment. But in Indonesia, people do not seem to trust GPs and go directly to specialists. Patients also often question the necessity of expensive examinations carried out by Indonesian doctors, who often fail to be communicative enough.
When patients seek a second opinion abroad, more often than not the same examinations and tests will be carried out, but will be explained to them properly in terms they understand, enabling providers to justify the expense.
Indonesian hospitals and pharmacies have no concept of customer service. Patients are often forced to wait a long time to see a doctor. Consultations also often seem hurried due to the limited time doctors have. Nurses seem just as busy, or unwilling to help, as doctors. In public hospitals, patients have to buy their own medicines or they will receive nothing and more often than not have to collect their own urine samples for testing.
In Singapore patients have scheduled appointments so they do not have to queue. In Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesian patients are happy to pay for expensive examinations as their conditions are explained thoroughly and doctors rarely keep them waiting.
Many pharmacists in foreign hospitals text message patients when their medicines are ready so they can take a stroll while waiting. This level of service does not seem to be available in Indonesia.
The government fails to see that if people stay in Indonesia to receive medical treatment, there will be more money in the government's coffers to fund development. There is a need to improve the standard and skills of health care workers by asking doctors and nurses to take competency tests. Such tests were carried out for the first time in Indonesia on Oct. 31. Doctors will also have to continually study, as their licenses will be canceled if they fail to meet minimum requirements, including participating in seminars, writing journal articles or joining discussion groups. In public hospitals, the number of nurses is not adequate. For instance, many renal failure patients in need of emergency haemodialysis are not treated due to a lack of human resources. This is life threatening.
In Indonesia the salaries of doctors and nurses is low and needs increasing. While salary rises will not stop Indonesian citizens seeking treatment abroad, at least Indonesian health care workers would have increased pride and dignity. Malaysia and Singapore will increase business, until or if something is done to encourage patients to stay in Indonesia, by offering and promoting good health care services.
Until the government acts, there is little point in Indonesia dreaming of becoming a health travel destination.