THREE RI HOSPITALS TO BE MADE WORLD CLASS

Jakarta, Sept 18 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government plans to turn three of its hospitals into world-class hospitals, a health ministry offiial said here on Thursday.
"We will not build new hospitals but develop world class service facilities in three existing hospitals," the director general of medical services development, Farid W Hussain, said after a meeting with House Commission IX.
He said the development of the international standard facilities would expectedly begin this year in Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta, Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar and Dr M.Djamil Hospital in Padang, West Sumatra.
"We have already provided Rp150 billion this year to build the facilities at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital and the project is already underway," he said.
He did not tell the budget for the project in the other two hospitals or the total budget for the three hospitals. "I did not remember it," he said.
He said what he meant by world-class service facilities were professional personnel, newest technological equipment and hospital service.
"Certainly the facilities have been accredited by the Federation of International Accreditation for Hospitals. So it is not a mere name," he said.
Regarding the government's plan, the chairman of House Commission IX, Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariyati, said that actually the facilities were not yet needed right now. "What is important is providing indiscriminative good service facilities for the poor.
She said it would be better if hospital services were not differentiated according to grades. "So all patients receive the same service," she said.