Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Lestari Moerdijat has called for an improvement in national health quality through the conduct of basic health checks at integrated health posts (posyandus).

"Many problems can be handled through efforts of routine basic health checks from early (on), such as reducing the rates of maternal and child mortality, as well as stunting," she said in a statement received here on Tuesday.

A movement to promote basic health checks at posyandus must be pushed to accelerate the improvement in the health quality of the community from an early age as part of efforts to develop strong human resources.

According to the Ministry of Health, currently, the number of community health centers (puskesmas) in Indonesia has reached 10,500. The number has been deemed inadequate for monitoring the quality of people's basic health.

Therefore, the prompt activation of 300 thousand posyandus across the country is needed for early detection of the quality of people's basic health.

"The national health service system must be able to serve the community's life cycle from birth, youth, adulthood, to old age to ensure the quality of health for every citizen," she explained.

According to Moerdijat, the activation of posyandus as part of efforts to monitor the community's basic health quality is essential for accelerating several achievements in the health field nationally.

"Improving the community's health quality is part of the process to realize strong and competitive Indonesians in the future," she remarked.

The MPR deputy speaker further said that health checks of mothers and children at posyandus must be boosted to tackle the existing problems related to health.

"Moreover, based on the Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI), the stunting prevalence in Indonesia declined from 24.4 percent in 2021 to 21.6 percent in 2022. Meanwhile, in 2024, the stunting prevalence is targeted to be at only 14 percent," she noted.

Moerdijat expressed the hope that several efforts in development that are related to the improvement of human resource quality, in terms of health and education, will receive serious attention from stakeholders, both at the central and regional levels.

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Translator: Putu Indah, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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