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akarta Health Agency head Dien Emmawati has said that her team is looking for doctors to join the open promotion system, which seeks to facilitate the selection of district Puskesmas (public health clinic) leaders to improve service quality.

'We are looking for Puskesmas leaders who have sound management skills and solid comprehension of excellent community health service,' she told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview.

Jakarta Employment Agency head I Made Karmayoga said that his team would be mapping out the presence of prospective doctors who were willing to serve as Puskesmas heads.

'Currently, out of the 359 community health centers in the city, 44 are operating in the district areas. My team will find doctors who are competent enough to serve as these health centers' heads,' he said.

Dien said she was confident that her team would not face a shortage of candidates.

'I'm sure there are a lot of doctors practicing at the Puskesmas' who will apply for the managerial position. Moreover, we are only looking for 44 Puskesmas heads, not hundreds of them,' she said.

She also said that doctors would still have time to practice at private clinics despite being a Puskesmas head.

'Despite assuming a managerial role, they will still be able to leave work at 4 p.m.'4:30 p.m. every day. I know a lot of Puskesmas heads who are able to work in private clinics in the evening,' she said.

The Jakarta administration recently announced its plan to allow doctors to apply for the position of Puskesmas head in a transparent and accountable process, following the implementation of a similar open promotion system for district and sub-district chiefs in April.

Deputy Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama said he wanted to improve the quality service at Puskesmas' through the open promotion system.

Karmayoga said that his agency was still deliberating the details of the open promotion system for Puskesmas heads.

'After we finish the selection of district and sub-district chiefs, we will form a team that will concentrate on creating the open promotion system procedure for Puskesmas leaders sometime in July,' he said.

Dara Pahlarini, the head of the Palmerah sub-district Puskesmas in West Jakarta, said she believed that the open recruitment system would enable the Jakarta health agency to select leaders who truly understood their job description.

'I think the agency will use clear-cut criteria to select prospective candidates through a rigorous process in the open recruitment system,' she told the Post in a recent interview.

Dara said that the agency did not have a clear method for selecting Puskesmas heads.

'When I was appointed the head of this Puskesmas a few years ago, the agency only sent me a decree that informed me of my appointment. They did not inform me of the specific evaluation process that led to my appointment,' she said. (ogi)