Early detection of stroke risk factors needs to be improved given the relatively high cost of handling patients in healthcare facilities.
Acting director of non-communicable disease control and prevention (P2PTM) at the Ministry of Health, Elvieda Sariwati, made the remarks while delivering a press statement on World Stroke Day, which was streamed on the Health Ministry’s YouTube channel here on Thursday.
“Early detection of stroke risk factors needs to be optimized among the community if we look at the increasing prevalence of risk factors based on Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) in 2013 and 2018, namely the achievement of health screening among people in the productive age is still low,” she noted.
She said stroke has the second-highest cost burden after heart disease, with a cumulative inpatient cost of Rp794.08 billion out of a total of 172,303 stroke cases.
The number indicates that the community failed to recognize the early signs of stroke so the handling of cases was too late, she said.
Another challenge in handling stroke patients is that not all hospitals have facilities and integrated stroke service management teams, she pointed out.
For this reason, education related to stroke needs to be intensified among Indonesian citizens, Sariwati said. Increasing the service capacity of health facilities is also necessary to handle stroke cases in the country, she added.
One of the efforts made by the Ministry of Health is promoting a campaign to invite the public to do health screening at least once a year, Sariwati said.
She assessed that health screening needs to be done to map several factors that increase the risk of strokes such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, or obesity.
Health transformation is also currently being strengthened through a roadmap initiated by the Ministry of Health, she said.
“Currently, a health transformation system is being carried out, both for primary and referral (healthcare) services, namely the strengthening of primary services and health centers for certain diseases. This is still being worked on and discussed,” she added.
Source: Antara News