JAKARTA, Aug 27 (NNN-ANTARA) — Indonesian President, Prabowo Subianto, said yesterday that, the country faces a shortage of at least 70,000 specialist doctors, to meet the needs of its health services.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Integrated Services Building and the National Neuroscience Institute of the National Brain Centre Hospital, in East Jakarta, Prabowo stressed the government’s commitment, to improving national healthcare through hospital development, new medical faculties, and faster training of medical personnel.
“I have received a report that we are short of 70,000 specialist doctors. We can only produce 12,000 general practitioners and 2,700 specialists per year,” Prabowo said, adding that, at this rate it would take up to 35 years to close the gap.
He emphasised the need for “concrete steps,” saying, Indonesia could not achieve prosperity with “business as usual.”
“My target is to have 30 new medical faculties to meet the 70,000 specialists, and the shortage of general practitioners is 140,000. If not, we’ll have to wait 35 years,” he said.
According to him, the Indonesian government plans to build 500 high-quality hospitals, within four years, and open 148 new study programmes in 57 medical faculties, including specialist and sub-specialist fields.– NNN-ANTARA
