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Over 200 frontline health workers have yet to be financially compensated: LaporCOVID-19
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A woman receives a booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Jakarta on Jan. 12, 2022. (AFP/Adek Berry)
M
ore than 200 health workers have yet to receive the promised financial incentives for their work on the frontlines of Indonesia's pandemic response throughout 2022, independent data initiative LaporCOVID-19 has found.
The organization received a total of 241 reports regarding late payment of the incentives, a majority of which were filed by health workers in West Java and East Java and who mostly worked either in private hospitals or hospitals owned by regional administrations.
“While some people in the reports said that they had their incentives reduced, most in the reports said they had [their incentives] stopped. They might have received it in 2021, but they did not receive any in 2022,” LaporCOVID-19 researcher Siswo Mulyartono told a press briefing on Sunday.
This, he said, was due to a policy change last year.
“In 2021, [the budget] for these financial incentives was solely sourced from the central government. But in 2022, for medical workers who worked in regional administration-owned hospitals, their incentives were sourced from [the administration’s] regional budget [APBD].”
According to a Health Minister decree signed in March last year, all health workers who deal with coronavirus cases, from those working in hospitals and makeshift isolation centers to those working in laboratories, are entitled to monthly incentives that vary according to how many days they work and their positions. Nurses can earn up to Rp 7.5 million (US$497) and specialist doctors up to Rp 15 million.
The budgets for incentives in private hospitals, as well as hospitals owned by the central government, including military hospitals and emergency tents erected during the heights of the pandemic, are sourced from the state budget (APBN). The budget for incentives in hospitals owned by regional administrations, meanwhile, are sourced from the respective APBD.
