"It is important for us to focus more on the promotive and preventive aspects because maintaining public health will be much cheaper and in terms of quality of life; it is better than curing the disease," Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin noted at the kick-off event for the integration of primary health services at the ministry's Sujudi Building, here on Friday.
Revitalizing public health facilities at the posyandu and puskesmas level is one of the programs for maintaining public health, he said.
"We already have posyandu, but due to the development of the regional autonomy law and so on, we need to revitalize them again so that posyandu can be accessible for the community," he added.
He affirmed that the Ministry of Health will set service standards at all posyandu and puskesmas. Posyandu cadres will not only serve mothers and children, but all age groups, including adolescents, adults, and older adults.
In addition, the ministry is also providing digital devices to help all officers in delivering services to the community, such as administrative services and medical record services.
"We want everything to be digitized. We have made a package of 12 health services that can be provided at the posyandu level by cadres who visit people's homes," Sadikin informed.
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Under the plan, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, will launch 300 thousand Prima Posyandu services from the village to the neighborhood level.
At the village level, 85 thousand Prima Posyandu units will be readied, which will offer a total of 21 health service packages. Then, 10 thousand puskesmas units offering 30 health service packages will be developed, he added.
The health services provided will have the same standard of facilities and infrastructure, including in terms of the provision of human resources so that the services can be accessed at the household level.
The programs will start to run throughout Indonesia by no later than 2024, Sadikin said.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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