T

he Jakarta administration is to build a cancer treatment hospital in West Jakarta, with doors expected to open in 2017.

Head of the Jakarta Health Agency, Koesmedi Priharto, said the hospital would be built on a 3.7 hectare plot of land in West Jakarta adjacent to Sumber Waras Hospital.

'€œWe will start construction later this year or early next year, [Jakarta] Governor [Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama] has requested that the cancer treatment hospital be 30 floors high,'€ Koesmedi announced at City Hall on Tuesday.

He went on to say that the administration would cooperate with the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesia Cancer Foundation (YKI) and the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) to train the city'€™s healthcare workers.

'€œWe will choose three doctors '€” one general physician, one internist and one pediatrician '€” and two nurses from each of the 10 hospitals in Jakarta to receive palliative care training from Singaporean doctors and caretakers from the Rachel House Children'€™s Hospice,'€ Koesmedi said,

The 10 hospitals are: Tarakan General Hospital and Cipto Mangunkusomo Hospital in Central Jakarta; Duren Sawit General Hospital, Pasar Rebo General Hospital, Budhi Asih General Hospital and Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta; Cengkareng General Hospital and Dharmais Hospital in West Jakarta; Koja General Hospital in North Jakarta and Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta.

According to the WHO, palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing life-threatening illness through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain, as well as physical, psychosocial and spiritual care for people with serious illnesess.

Data from the Jakarta Health Agency shows that Jakarta has just four palliative practitioners for some 7,000 cancer patients in the city. SIF executive director Jean Tan said the need for palliative care was growing globally.

'€œThis year, it is predicted that 20.4 million people [will] need palliative care, 6 percent of whom are children. However, only one in 10 people receive the palliative care they need. In Jakarta alone, it is projected that there will be 10,000 new cancer cases each year,'€ Jean said during a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing with Rachel House at Jakarta City Hall. Rachel House is one of the few facilities in Jakarta that gives palliative care to children with serious illness.

She said the cooperation aimed to increase the capability and capacity of the Jakarta medical community to care for patients with serious illnesses.

Meanwhile, YKI Jakarta chairwoman Veronica Tan said the selected medical doctors would receive three years of training.

'€œIn the fourth year, the doctors'€™ performances will be evaluated,'€ said Veronica, who is also
Ahok'€™s wife.

Veronica went on to say that doctors would be trained by a multidisciplinary team led by palliative care expert Akhileswaran Ramaswamy, who is also the CEO and medical director of HCA Hospice Care in Singapore.

The multidisciplinary team, Veronica said, would consist of two doctors and four nurses.

'€œIt will be hard work, but the struggle will pay off,'€ she said.