he management of Harapan Bunda Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, said on Friday that the police had arrested a nurse named Ina at the hospital in relation to the fake vaccine investigations.
The police also summoned a pediatrician named Indra Sugiarno, it said.
"Irna has been arrested while we still don't know the status of Indra, who was summoned by the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department [Bareskrim] on Thursday," Harapan Bunda medical committee head Seto Hanggoro told a press conference on Friday.
Seto said the hospital was sorry for what happened. He claimed that management was not aware that its health workers had been administering counterfeit vaccines.
According to Seto, the hospital faced a shortage of vaccines between March and June 2016. Some health workers, he said, apparently exploited the situation to get money by administering fake vaccines to patients.
"We guarantee that all vaccines that were administered before March this year and paid for through the hospital's cashier, not nurse or doctor, are genuine. Such vaccines are supplied by official distributors," Seto said, adding the hospital had documents to support its claim.
The hospital said it would examine the patients to determine whether they needed to be revaccinated. It also said it would reimburse the cost for those who opt to get immunizations in other hospitals.
The angry parents, however, did not buy the hospital’s explanation. Some of the patients claimed they had paid for the vaccinations directly to the nurses and doctors since 2015.
A representative of the parents, August Siregar, said that they would take the case to the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) or Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI). (ary)
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