Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Health officials from Aceh and Maluku said over the weekend
that the prolonged conflicts in the two provinces were hindering
the public's access to government health services.
Speaking on the sidelines of a national meeting of the Ministry
of Health here, the officials said much of the medical
infrastructure in the provinces -- hospitals, public health
centers and support clinics in remote areas -- had been destroyed,
and health workers and volunteers had been forced to flee.
Cut Idawani, the head of the Aceh Health Office, said many
seriously ill patients could not be treated properly because of
damaged medical equipment and a shortage of specialists and other
medical staff.
She said that the province, with a population of 4.2 million
people, only had two government-run general hospitals and 78
specialists.
According to her, the province is in urgent need of more than
100 specialists from various fields.
"Some regency administrations have offered attractive
salaries to specialists to remain in Aceh, but it seems money is
not everything," she said, adding that the province still was
in need of some 117 surgeons, neurologists, psychiatrists,
gynecologists and pediatricians.
The head of the Maluku Health Office, Ristianto Sugiono, echoed
Cut's opinion, saying Maluku had only nine specialists, with 18
others having fled the violence.
"With the health workers gone and health centers
destroyed, access to health care has become very difficult,"
he said.
The conflicts in the provinces have also prevented health
workers like midwives from gaining access to remote villages.
Both Cut and Ristianto said the conflicts had paralyzed social
life and the public infrastructure, including schools, hospitals
and community halls.
The two said none of the regencies and mayoralties in their
provinces had kept a promise to increase the budgets of schools
and health centers.
Ristianto said that in 2002, the health sector in Maluku would
receive just 1 percent of the provincial budget, which would
further restrict the people's access to government health
services.
He also said a lack of sanitation and clean water were two more
major problems the people in Maluku were having to deal with.
"You can imagine how many toilets we should build for
1,000 refugees in one camp, and how much money is needed to build
them," he said.
He added that there were no reserve stocks of medicine in the
regencies, and many of the people living in refugee camps were
suffering from malaria and diarrhea.