South Tangerang, April 24, 2024

President Joko Widodo officially opened the 2024 National Health Work Meeting (Rakerkesnas) held on April 24-25, 2024, at ICE BSD, South Tangerang, Banten. In his remarks, the President said that Indonesia has the potential to become a developed country because in the 2030s Indonesia will get a demographic bonus and the health sector has a very important role to realize this.

"We can seize this opportunity and accelerate to become a developed country, but if we don't (take advantage of the demographic bonus) I'm sorry," the President said at the National Health Worker, April 24, 2024.

The President said, as expressed by the Minister of Health when delivering a speech, health is very important even compared to education to make children smart. Because, Jokowi said, if you are smart but not healthy, then it cannot provide benefits. The President hopes that the current health problems can be addressed together and integrated from the center to the regions.

Therefore, the President added, we need a long-term plan, medium-term plan, and health master plan that are in line from the center to the regions.

"Everything must be in line, must be one straight line. Therefore, we want to consolidate it and integrate it so that our work together can produce concrete results from the health problems we have," the President said.

The President hopes that the health master plan can be completed soon so that it can be used as a guideline for the implementation of health programs at the central, regional and private sectors. 

"I am sure that if everything goes together, there will be significant progress in the health sector in our country," the President added.

The President added that there are still a number of homeworks in the health sector that need to be resolved together. Among them is the problem of stunting, which despite experiencing a significant decline, from 37% of stunting cases in Indonesia 10 years ago to 21.5% in December 2023 yesterday. According to the President, overcoming stunting is not an easy thing and needs to involve various sectors to overcome it.

"The stunting rate at the end of last year was still 21.5%, but we should have reached 14%. But I calculate this is not easy, to overcome this program must be integrated," the President said.

In addition to stunting, the problem that has been highlighted is the high mortality rate caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The President mentioned three NCDs that contribute to the highest mortality rate in Indonesia, namely stroke with 330 thousand deaths, heart disease with 300 thousand deaths, and cancer with 300 thousand deaths.

Meanwhile, regarding medical equipment, the president said that almost all health centers have now obtained health examination support tools such as ultrasound and ECG. Likewise, hospitals in the regions have obtained additional medical equipment that is expected to support efforts to improve health services to the community.

"Some regions have received CT scan equipment, cath lab, but the room is not yet supportive. Mr. Minister gave an example of what the correct room looks like, so that the hospital Director can see," the President said.

The President further said that another big problem in health is the availability of health workers. Currently, the number of doctors and specialists in Indonesia is still lacking where the ratio is only 0.47 and ranks 147th in the world.

The President also highlighted the high number of Indonesians who seek medical treatment abroad. According to the President, almost one million Indonesian citizens choose to seek medical treatment abroad rather than in the country, which economically means that the country loses around Rp 180 trillion every year. 

Regarding the availability of medicinal raw materials, 90% are still imported. Meanwhile, 52% of medical devices are also imported.

"For medical devices, that's fine, but don't let our needles, hoses and infusion devices still be imported too, no, we must produce them ourselves," said the President.

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