Day: March 6, 2023

Jakarta (ANTARA) – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) instructed Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin to find a solution to tackle the problem of a lack of specialty and sub-specialty doctors in Indonesia.”We still have a problem in the country that there is a shortage of specialty or sub-specialty doctors. I have urged the minister of health to take care of that,” Jokowi stated while inaugurating Mayapada Hospital in Bandung, West Java.

Jokowi said that at least two million Indonesians seek treatment abroad, of which one million head to Malaysia, 750 thousand to Singapore, while the rest to Japan, the US, and Germany.

“Do we want this to keep going?” the president stated while adding that some Rp165 trillion (around US$10.7 billion) of foreign exchange was lost since two million Indonesians are seeking treatment abroad.

Despite the prepared medical devices and infrastructure, he pointed out that several aspects, such as the services, still needed to be improved.

Jokowi also urged Sadikin and Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister, Nadiem Makarim, to address issues related to medical education.

“I will ask the education minister to amplify and improve access to the education of specialty doctors, so our sick people can all be handled,” he remarked.

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He also praised Mayapada Hospital Bandung that also serves patients with state health insurance (BPJS).

“I actually wanted to ask the director of Mayapada Bandung to not only serve the upper middle class, but it turns out that many people with BPJS are already served,” Jokowi remarked.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Sadikin highlighted that the government seeks to expedite the process to produce qualified specialty doctors that is based on the standards of each collegium.

“(We will) carry it out in universities and hospitals and coordinate with the Education Ministry to solve obstacles in the field,” he remarked.

Mayapada Hospital Bandung (MHBD), which became operational since February 22, applies the green hospital concept based on environmental comfort and safety and has “healing gardens” on each floor as waiting rooms for the patients’ families.

Source: Antara News Agency

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The direct flight from Xiamen Gaoqi Airport, China, to I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Denpasar, Bali, brings positive impact for Bali’s tourism and economy, the Transportation Ministry said.”This is important, given that China is one of the potential markets for tourism in Bali,” Air Transportation Director General at the Ministry Maria Kristi Endah Murni said in a statement, Monday.

“Currently, it was recorded that 1,143 tourists from China came to Bali since the start of 2023. The availability of the direct regular flight will certainly help,” she noted.

The Xiamen-Denpasar direct flight is available on a daily basis.

The first Xiamen-Denpasar flight became the foremost regular flight after the COVID-19 pandemic that was unveiled last Friday.

Xiamen Airlines has deployed a 169-seater Boeing 738-800 aircraft. The airplane arrives from Xiamen at 11:15 p.m. local time and returns to Xiamen at 00:15 a.m. local time.

Earlier, the I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport had served a Lion Air-operated Boeing 737-900 charter flight from Shenzen to Denpasar once a week.

Regular and charter flights facilitate direct connectivity between Bali and China’s two cities of Xiamen and Shenzhen.

Murni expects that flight accessibility between China and Indonesia would encourage the recovery of the aviation sector, especially through the international flight route operated not just in Bali but also in other cities.

Close collaboration between ministries or institutions and all flight stakeholders will help in realizing the flight connectivity potential, so that cities can be connected with the international route, Murni remarked.

In addition to China, another weekly international direct flight by Garuda Indonesia airlines’ 250-seater capacity Airbus A333 aircraft has begun to be operated from Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan, to Sam Ratulangi Airport, Manado, North Sulawesi, since the start of March 2023.

Source: Antara News Agency