"The budget will be used by the Health Ministry to finance the six pillars of health transformation," he informed after attending the 2024 state budget draft and financial notes meeting during the plenary meeting of the House of Representatives (DPR ) for 2023–2024 in Jakarta on Wednesday.
He said that the government is planning an overall health budget allocation of Rp186.4 trillion in 2024. The funds will be distributed to a number of related agencies and institutions.
The largest portion of the Rp90 trillion budget will be absorbed for the first pillar of health transformation, namely primary service transformation, which will focus on providing standardized and integrated primary health services.
The first pillar's activities will target equal distribution in terms of access to health services at 12 thousand community health centers (puskesmas) spread across all regions of Indonesia, Dasanugraha informed.
To realize the target, his party will carry out several programs, including rearranging the network of healthcare facilities.
The ministry will also revitalize integrated health posts (posyandus) with an appropriate budget. Later, posyandus may also be regulated by the Ministry of Home Affairs or the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration, he added.
He said that posyandus will not only serve babies and mothers, but also teenagers, adults, and the elderly.
The ministry will also reform public health laboratories in stages, starting from the city/district, provincial, to national levels, he remarked.
Apart from the first pillar, Dasanugraha said that the largest portion of the health transformation budget will be channeled to achieve the second pillar, namely referral service transformation.
This transformation will take care of the three leading causes of death in Indonesia, namely heart disease, stroke, and cancer, he noted.
For example, the problems faced in heart disease treatment include the uneven distribution of hospitals with heart ring surgery services, he explained.
Data from the ministry showed that out of 34 provinces, only 28 provinces offer heart ring installation surgery. Further, only 22 out of 28 provinces have the ability to perform open heart surgery.
Therefore, the ministry is targeting that by 2024, all provinces in Indonesia will serve patients suffering from heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
On the same occasion, President Joko Widodo advised that the 2024 health budget be used to encourage the development of a strong and competitive pharmaceutical industry, improve access to and quality of primary and referral services, guarantee the availability of reliable health facilities from upstream to downstream, and support the National Health Insurance Program (JKN).
"To realize healthy and productive human resources, the health budget is planned to be at Rp186.4 trillion or 5.6 percent of the state budget," he conveyed.
The President also emphasized that this budget allocation will need to be used to accelerate the reduction of stunting prevalence in 2024 to 14 percent, which can be carried out by expanding the coverage of all districts/cities in Indonesia by strengthening the synergy of various institutions.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Resinta S
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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