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Indonesian healthcare relies heavily on imported equipment
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A healthcare worker prepares a device to help a patient with cervical cancer detection at a public health center in Palembang, South Sumatra. (Antara/ Feny Selly )
Indonesia needs to reduce its dependency on imported healthcare equipment, an official has said.
Central Java provincial health agency head Yulianto Prabowo said the contribution of local products to healthcare equipment was only 6 percent.
“The distribution permits for the equipment are now controlled by foreign companies,” Yulianto said while opening a healthcare equipment factory in Semarang on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com.
As such, he stressed the need to encourage local healthcare equipment makers to produce more products to help reduce the country’s dependency on imported products.
The total annual value of the healthcare equipment market in Indonesia is Rp 12 trillion (US$900 million), said Yulianto, adding that hospitals and healthcare clinics in Central Java spent about Rp 1.2 trillion per year on the equipment.
He expressed the hope that the procurement process for equipment could become more transparent to avoid unhealthy competition.
“I hope all prices for healthcare equipment will be listed in an e-catalogue so that it is fair for all stakeholders,” he added.
He also encouraged hospitals and other institutions to purchase local healthcare equipment products as local factories had started to produce various items such as laboratory tools, radiology equipment, operation tables, wheelchairs and patient beds.
“We need good quality products, but it doesn’t mean that we have to import,” he added. (bbn)
