Outpatients find a home away from home

Triwik Kurniasari ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 07/22/2008 10:14 AM  |  Headlines

Siti Hanifa, 48, lay on a mattress on the floor of a three-by-four meter room in a house on Jl. Cokroaminoto, Central Jakarta.

DOWN-AND-OUT PATIENTS: A number of outpatients at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital bed down at a volunteer’s house on Jl. Cokroaminoto in Menteng, Central Jakarta, as they are unable to pay the costs of traveling between their homes and the hospital. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)

Her husband Darsono sat beside her, busily fanning her because the house had no air conditioning.

Siti, a patient from Lampung, had just received treatment for a stomach tumor at the Menteng public health center.

"I'm glad I'm receiving the treatment," she said. "I'm happy to know there are still many people who care about me."

Siti is one of many outpatients of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM), Central Jakarta, who used to spend their nights in one of the hospital's buildings without permission.

The patients and their relatives, who were from outside Jakarta, chose to stay in the building because they did not have enough money to pay the cost of traveling back and forth to the hospital.

RSCM asked them to leave the building two weeks ago because their presence had caused hygiene problems that posed a risk to other patients.

They then stayed in the office of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for four days before it moved them into the house in Menteng on Sunday. The house belonged to a former member of LBH Jakarta, who was concerned about the patients' situation.

The house consists of four bedrooms, two bathrooms -- in a terrible condition -- an overgrown backyard and a spacious back veranda furnished with a few worn sofas.

Siti said a hospital in Lampung referred her to RSCM because the Lampung hospital did not have the proper medical equipment to treat her.

"My husband and I arrived in Jakarta about a month ago. We don't have any relatives in the city and it's too costly for us to go back and forth. One way costs us more than Rp 240,000 (US$26)," she said.

She said she had to come to the hospital once a week for checkups and could not afford to return home after each treatment.

Another patient, Suheti, who suffers from eye tumors, said her family's limited income meant she had to stay in the city.

She and her son would have had to take a bus from Serang to RSCM once a week if she chose to stay in her house -- a trip that costs more than Rp 60,000.

"That's a lot of money for us because my husband works as a laborer and earns less than Rp 100,000 a week," said Suheti, who was referred to RSCM by a hospital in Serang.

RSCM is often overrun with patients who are referred by local hospitals across the country. Most of the patients are from low-income families.

RSCM director Akmal Taher said the number of patients exceeded the hospital's capacity and he called on the city administration to improve the referral system among hospitals.

"The poor referral system is the main reason behind the overload of patients in RSCM. Public health centers in the city, for example, often refer their patients to RSCM," he said.

Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation chairman Marius Widjajarta said the administration must improve the referral system to ensure no patients, especially those from outside Jakarta, are neglected.

"There is a designated system for this, but its promotion and the implementation are lacking," he said.

The Health Ministry should also help distribute information about other reputable state hospitals in the country, other than RSCM, Marius said.

"Today, most hospitals in other regions right across the country refer their patients to RSCM. This is not right.

"A hospital can refer the patients to other hospitals in its province. If the patients are from Lampung, the hospital can refer them to Palembang, for example," he said.

"There are many qualified hospitals outside Java. So they shouldn't just send them to RSCM."

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.