Optimal improvement in the quality of health services in West Sulawesi should be the government�s focus.
Therefore, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said in the provincial capital of Mamuju on Sunday that the nurses, midwives and doctors in the province have to improve health services provided to people, irrespective of social status, religion or tribe.
"All people in Indonesia should get equal health services from the nurses, midwives and the doctors. If there are some nurses, midwives and doctors who fail to give the best possible healthcare to the people, it is better for them to resign from their profession," the health minister noted.
Further, she explained that many hospitals and social health centres are yet to meet the demands and requirements of the patients and this creates problems between patients and hospitals or social health centres.
Therefore, Mboi noted that the hospitals and the social health centres in West Sulawesi province should improve their accreditation to provide the local community with qualified health services.
Speaking at a regional health working meeting in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, the health minister said there were 8 government and private hospitals in West Sulawesi.
"These hospitals must improve their accreditation so that the people here can enjoy better and qualified health services," the health minister noted.
She added that to improve their accreditation, the hospitals should meet the required management standards of better service towards patients, patient safety goal and the millennium development goals.
Meanwhile, head of the West Sulawesi Health Office, Dr. Ahmad Asiz explained that the challenges in the health sector are increasing with time.
"Therefore, the aim of the regional health working meeting in Mamuju was to respond to the expected challenges in the province in 2013 and beyond," Ahmad Asiz noted.
In an effort to improve the public health services in West Sulawesi, Governor Anwar Adnan Saleh has asked the Ministry of Health to help upgrade the regional general hospital (RSUD) to the status of a referral hospital.
"We ask the Ministry of Health to allocate funds to make RSUD Sulbar the only referral hospital in West Sulawesi," the governor said at a meeting with the Health Minister in Mamuju on Monday.
The governor said assistance from the Ministry of Health was urgently needed to improve the facilities at the regional general hospital in West Sulawesi.
"The most fundamental need is for medical equipment at the hospital to be always available for the interest of the patients," Governor Anwar Adnan said.
Besides, he noted that the RSUD Sulbar should immediately be accredited to function as a referral hospital in West Sulawesi because it has five medical services, 200 nurses and 6 specialists.
"The RSUD Sulbar should immediately be turned into a referral hospital so that patients will no longer be referred to the hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi," the governor noted.
In response to the statement made by the West Sulawesi governor, the health minister said that she was optimistic that the province would be able to develop the health sector.
"There is no reason to doubt West Sulawesi Governor Anwar Adnan Saleh`s commitment to improving the health sector in the province until 2016," Mboi said.
She opined that to measure the success of development in the health sector, the local government should ensure proper planning to gain good health quality.
But the health minister also pointed out that proper planning should also be accompanied with accurate health data and information.
"Planning is important because with its supporting data and information we can measure the result of health development as a whole," she noted.
According to her, health related data and information should come from the socio-demographic conditions, public health degrees, health reform efforts that have been made, health resources and various other things.
"It is not very difficult to improve the health services in West Sulawesi because its population is relatively small or about 1.1 million people in five districts," Mboi said.
Therefore she asserted that the health sector in the province should be improved objectively by building affordable public health centres.
She noted that proper cooperation among stakeholders was needed to help improve people`s health in West Sulawesi.
To prevent the province from grappling with health problems, Mboi said all institutions, public as well as private, must develop partnerships to improve the community health care system in the province.
According to her, some of the main challenges facing the health sector in the province were the lack of human resources, funds and infrastructure.
"The problem of inadequate human resources, funds and infrastructure is experienced by almost all remote areas in Indonesia and therefore, strong partnerships and shared commitments are the best way to deal with these issues," Mboi stated. (*)
Reporter: Otniel Tamindael
Editor: Otniel Tamindael
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
