Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture has expressed the hope that health service facilities in regions will continue to improve the quality of services provided to patients with kidney failure who require dialysis therapy.

It is hoped that the quality of services at health facilities will improve because the standard rate for health services under the National Health Insurance (JKN) program for dialysis patients has increased from Rp7.5 million (US$491) to Rp8.0 million (US$524) per month, based on the Minister of Health’s Regulation Number 3 of 2023, the ministry added.

"With the increase in financing rates, the ministry is pushing for health service facilities to improve service quality," the ministry's young expert policy analyst, Anang Suryana, said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

According to the 2019 Indonesian Renal Registry (IRR), the number of patients undergoing Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) therapy in Indonesia has reached 2,442, he noted.

CAPD is a dialysis method that is performed through the stomach by utilizing the membrane lining in the abdominal cavity as a natural filter. The dialysis method can be carried out by a patient independently.

According to Suryana, kidney failure has been included as a catastrophic disease in the JKN program. The disease requires long-term medical care and costs a lot of money, therefore, medical assistance for patients is urgently needed.

"This is good news. The budget increases from Rp7.5 million (US$491) to Rp8.0 million (US$524). With this figure, health service facilities must improve the quality of their health services," Suryana emphasized.

He said that each health service facility that cooperates with the National Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS), which is the manager of the JKN program, must discuss the safe distribution of CAPD fluids to patients.

Suryana informed that his ministry is also encouraging the Health Ministry, hospitals, and BPJS health to strengthen the management of CAPD therapy health services from the stage of procurement, distribution, to provision to patients with kidney failure.

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Translator: Suci Nurhaliza, Resinta S
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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