New Law to Enhance Medical Education and Availability of Medical Services

OVERVIEW

Having high  quality doctors and dentists in sufficient numbers, appears to be an issue that has been left unaddressed for a considerable time This is noticeable in Indonesia’s current doctor/ dentist to patient ratio which sits at 33:100,000 or 30 such professionals for each 100,000 people ,below the  World Health Organization’s recommended ratio of  40:100,000.[1]

This problem is accentuated in Indonesia due to the unequal distribution of doctors and dentists throughout the archipelago. Of the 90,641 registered doctors and dentist in Indonesia, 60% are located in Java and of these 19,567 practice in Jakarta.[2] As a consequence, the primary medical service facilities for many Indonesians are the over 2000 government-clinics or puskesmas (pusat kesehatan masyarakat) that provide medical services without doctor assistance.[3]