ID :
57852
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 07:41
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/57852
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IDI URGES GOVT TO RESTRICT FOREIGN HEALTH SERVICE ADS
Jakarta, April 27 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) has urged the government to regulate advertisements promoting foreign health services to increase public confidence in domestic health services.
"The promotions of foreign health services have assumed extraordinary proportions," IDI chairman Fahmi Idris said here on Monday.
He said so far Indonesia had never imposed tight control on advertisements on foreign health services such as is being done by Singapore and other countries where many well-heeled Indonesian patients prefer to seek medical care.
He said Singapore had a special health service regulation that among others banned advertisements of foreign clinical and hospital services.
"Why don't we make or adopt a similar regulation. We have asked the health authorities to make such a regulation for the sake of protecting consumers," he said.
Fahmi Idris also questioned the truth of the messages contained in the advertisements of foreign health services.
He said advertisements that quoted testimonials from ex-patients should actually be banned because their case could not be generalized.
Fahmi said Indonesians were spending trillions of rupiahs abroad on health services every year. He estimated around Rp40 trillion (almost four billion US dollars) was going to health services abroad every year.
He said his estimate was based upon an assumption that 10 percent of the country's population or around 20 million people of the country spent minimally Rp20 million each on health service abroad a year.
"This is far above the national budget for the health sector," he said.
He wondered how could foreign health service institutions followed the tight rules in their respective countries and act freely in Indonesia.
Fahmi admitted that consumers had a right to seek medical treatment anywhere and also that health service in the country's hospitals and clinics still needed improvement.
Emphasizing the importance of improving the health service system in the country including its reference system, he said "many specialists still handle cases that actually could be handled by general practitioners while specialists actually should only handle a case upon reference from a general practitioner."
National businessman Irwan Hidayat meanwhile said he believed if doctors in the country would love their patients and improve their professionalism consumers would have confidence in domestic services.
"I trust around 87 percent of my health care to domestic health services," the president director of PT Sido Muncul said, adding that he had a family doctor from the country that had served his family for the past 30 years.
IDI in cooperation with Sido Muncul plans to give awards to national figures including government officials, politicians and businessmen who had confided their health treatment to domestic services.
"We do it with regard to seeking role models," Fahmi said.
He said investigation would be carried out from April to the end of May, which was immediately followed by nomination and award presentation on June 12.
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"The promotions of foreign health services have assumed extraordinary proportions," IDI chairman Fahmi Idris said here on Monday.
He said so far Indonesia had never imposed tight control on advertisements on foreign health services such as is being done by Singapore and other countries where many well-heeled Indonesian patients prefer to seek medical care.
He said Singapore had a special health service regulation that among others banned advertisements of foreign clinical and hospital services.
"Why don't we make or adopt a similar regulation. We have asked the health authorities to make such a regulation for the sake of protecting consumers," he said.
Fahmi Idris also questioned the truth of the messages contained in the advertisements of foreign health services.
He said advertisements that quoted testimonials from ex-patients should actually be banned because their case could not be generalized.
Fahmi said Indonesians were spending trillions of rupiahs abroad on health services every year. He estimated around Rp40 trillion (almost four billion US dollars) was going to health services abroad every year.
He said his estimate was based upon an assumption that 10 percent of the country's population or around 20 million people of the country spent minimally Rp20 million each on health service abroad a year.
"This is far above the national budget for the health sector," he said.
He wondered how could foreign health service institutions followed the tight rules in their respective countries and act freely in Indonesia.
Fahmi admitted that consumers had a right to seek medical treatment anywhere and also that health service in the country's hospitals and clinics still needed improvement.
Emphasizing the importance of improving the health service system in the country including its reference system, he said "many specialists still handle cases that actually could be handled by general practitioners while specialists actually should only handle a case upon reference from a general practitioner."
National businessman Irwan Hidayat meanwhile said he believed if doctors in the country would love their patients and improve their professionalism consumers would have confidence in domestic services.
"I trust around 87 percent of my health care to domestic health services," the president director of PT Sido Muncul said, adding that he had a family doctor from the country that had served his family for the past 30 years.
IDI in cooperation with Sido Muncul plans to give awards to national figures including government officials, politicians and businessmen who had confided their health treatment to domestic services.
"We do it with regard to seeking role models," Fahmi said.
He said investigation would be carried out from April to the end of May, which was immediately followed by nomination and award presentation on June 12.
***3***
