VIP cancer patients urge the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta to improve its red carpet services, particularly for those who need to undergo radiotherapy programs.
“It is not as ‘red carpet’ as you think,” Maya, not her real name, who accompanied her cancer-stricken husband, told The Jakarta Post.
“Don’t expect a world-class international service. Once I had to wait for hours until late evening,” her husband said.
However the red-carpet services are better than the first-line and general services in the sense that VIP patients get priority service.
In addition, red-carpet patients are privileged to have medical consultation with specialists and to have an on-call schedule for radiotherapy. The hospital’s department of radiotherapy stands in a new building. VIP patients wait in a posh waiting room.
Across the VIP waiting room, many non-VIP patients were seen waiting for hours to be called for their therapy sessions.
“I have been waiting here for more than four hours,” said a man as he accompanied his co-worker who had nasal cancer.
As a first-line patient, his friend holds the same rights as VIP patients, with the exception that he could make an on-call schedule for radiotherapy.
“I don’t think there’s a much of difference between the first-line and general patients, as both types of patients have to wait for long hours.
“I don’t understand how the hospital schedules the patients here.”
RSCM’s public relation officer, Poniwati Yacub, refused to comment, but a secretary of the radiotherapy department, Mira, said:
“We need to look at it on a case-by-case basis.”
Red carpet patients usually get priority but are also subject to going through speedier planning and registration procedures, and a process by which the hospital needs to know how many sessions of radiotherapy that the patient has gone through.
“Technical problems also could cause the delay of our services,” she told The Jakarta Post.
According to one of the department’s receptionists, patients have to pay Rp 32 million (US$3,488), Rp 27 million, and Rp 19 million for the red carpet, first-line, and general services, respectively, for
25 sessions.
The hospital launched the red carpet services in February 2009 to attract patients from the middle and higher social classes. The services are also used as a cross-subsidy for poor patients. (tsy)
