Jakarta (ANTARA) - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati expects that support worth Rp4.2 trillion, or US$293 million, from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) will help in realizing the government's commitment to bolstering health services in Indonesia.

"I would like to praise IsDB for having supported the strengthening of the national project on referral hospitals and vertical technical units," Indrawati noted at the groundbreaking of the Strengthening of National Referral Hospitals and Vertical Technical Units on Thursday.

The minister expects that support from IsDB would become a catalyst for improving health services at referral hospitals in Indonesia.

The support was provided to improve maternal and child services at six vertical hospitals in Indonesia, starting with the Central General Hospital (RSUP) Prof. Dr. IGNG Ngoerah in Bali Province.

In addition, the other hospitals include the Dharmais Cancer Hospital and Persahabatan Hospital in Jakarta; Dr. Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung City, West Java Province; Dr. Sardjito Hospital in Yogyakarta; and RSUP Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo in Makassar City, South Sulawesi Province.

The minister remarked that the program is part of Indonesia's health reformation by bolstering basic health services starting from community health centers (puskesmas) to referral hospitals.

Indrawati noted that the government had allocated a huge amount of money to implement the national economic recovery program and to handle the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020.

The health budget allocation had been increased, from five percent in 2021 to 9.4 percent in 2022, reaching Rp255.3 trillion, Indrawati noted.

On the same occasion, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that IsDB's support aligned with the Indonesian government's attempts to expedite the achievement of targets of the six pillars of the national health transformation program.

The pillars included the improvement of primary services, referral services, health resilience systems, health financing, health human resources, and health technology.

The referral service transformation is conducted through the improvement of referral hospital network, transformation of vertical hospital service, collaboration with global institutions, as well as implementation of the Academic Health system.

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Translator: Agatha Victoria, Uyu Liman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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