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New hospital-based residency program waives tuition fees
Unlike university-based training programs, for which residents must pay hundreds of millions of rupiah in some cases, the new program will be tuition-free. In addition, each participant will receive a monthly stipend of up to Rp 5 million (US$9,364) during the training period and will be appointed as a civil servant upon completion.
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The Health Ministry launched the country’s first hospital-based residency program earlier this week, saying there would be 38 spots available in the first cohort. (Shutterstock/Billion Photos)
T
he government has decided to exempt some medical residents from specialist training fees in an attempt to fast-track their education and address a growing shortage of doctors in the country, particularly in remote regions.
The Health Ministry launched the country’s first hospital-based residency program earlier this week, saying there would be 38 spots available in the first cohort. The ministry has, so far, opened medical specialist training in cardiology, pediatrics, orthopedics, ophthalmology, neurology and oncology at six state-owned hospitals across Java.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said doctors from frontier, outermost and least developed (3T) regions would be prioritized in the program’s selection process and that the government was seeking to impose the new program in 420 of the country’s 3,000 hospitals, including private ones.
“There are only 38 spots available in the pilot project as we are still learning [about its implementation], but we will definitely boost the number of recipients and hospitals involved in the upcoming batch,” Budi said during the program’s launch on Monday.
Unlike university-based training programs, for which residents must pay hundreds of millions of rupiah in some cases, the new program will be tuition-free. In addition, each participant will receive a monthly stipend of up to Rp 5 million (US$9,364) during the training period and will be appointed as a civil servant upon completion.
All successful applicants, however, must sign a document declaring that they will practice in a 3T region after finishing the postgraduate training.
Minister Budi emphasized that the new residency program was aimed at addressing the decades-long problem of shortages and poor distribution of doctors.
