T

he Tarakan Regional Hospital in Central Jakarta has opened a chemotherapy treatment center, the first facility of its kind in Jakarta.

Tarakan hospital director Togi Asman Sinaga said during the launch ceremony last Thursday that the number of patients with cancer had been rising steadily in recent years.

'€œPatients who use the national health insurance program [JKN] are queuing for two to three months to receive chemotherapy treatment at Dharmais Cancer Hospital [in West Jakarta],'€ Togi said. Dharmais is the only public cancer hospital in Indonesia.

The new center, he added, had opened in June after personnel worked on the project for six months.

According to Togi, the center can accommodate eight patients in four classless infirmary wards on the sixth floor of the hospital building. '€œThose wards used to be divided into first and second class,'€ he said.

Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, who attended the launch ceremony, said that patients from all over the country came to Dharmais, forcing Jakarta sufferers into long waits for treatment.

'€œIrregular chemotherapy is bad for patients,'€ he said.

Ahok said he had chosen Tarakan to be the first regional hospital to have a chemotherapy center because of its proximity to Dharmais. '€œIn terms of specialists and facilities, the hospital is also ready to have one,'€ he said.

The city administration would, the governor went on, add similar centers at other regional hospitals. '€œWe'€™re starting off with small centers like this until we can build our own cancer hospital,'€ he said.

The city administration has purchased a 3.6-hectare plot of land beside Sumber Waras Hospital in West Jakarta to build a cancer hospital. However, construction cannot begin until the facilities currently located on the plot have been moved. Meanwhile, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has declared the purchase superfluous and dubious.

'€œWe will continue the plan. We are in dire need of a cancer hospital,'€ Ahok insisted.

Besides the increasing number of patients, the governor also expressed concern that sufferers were getting younger. '€œI visited a patient earlier who was 19 years old,'€ he said after visiting the new center.

Cancer, he added, paid no heed to social status or wealth. '€œTherefore, we need to provide more free facilities for sufferers,'€ he said.

Jakarta Health Agency head Kusmedi Priharto said other hospitals that might get cancer treatment centers included Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta and Koja in North Jakarta.