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Jakarta Post

New physician classification category necessary to boost competence: Govt

Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, October 27, 2016

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New physician classification category necessary to boost competence: Govt  Protesting doctors – Doctors join with the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) to stage a peaceful rally protesting the government’s plan to establish a Primary Healthcare Physicians (DLP) education program in Kediri, East Java, on Oct. 24. (Antara/Prasetia Fauzani)

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Health Ministry official has said the establishment of a new category, called “primary healthcare physicians (DLPs)”, stipulated in the 2013 Medical Education Law draft revision, is necessary to provide doctors with additional competence, especially those who work in remote areas that have a limited number of medical practitioners.

Usman Sumantri, the ministry’s head of the human resource development and empowerment division, said DLPs were new specialists in Indonesia’s medical profession. To become a DLP is “optional” in nature and will not add to the length of the required curriculum that a medical student must take, he said.

Instead, he said DLPs would add to the competence of a physician and increase his or her authority so that he or she could resolve more health problems by expanding their expertise in primary healthcare.

"This new expertise is very much needed, especially for areas with limited or no specialists," Usman told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. He further said the DLP program was still in the preparatory stage and it was expected the program could be implemented in several universities next year at the earliest. 

Usman's comments come as a response to recent protests staged by the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI), which voiced concerns about rising medical education costs and prolonged studies.

The ministry official stressed that the DLP program would not change existing medical education requirements since it was not a compulsory qualification.  

IDI president-elect Daeng Mohammad Faqih said earlier the program was a waste of state money, prolonged the duration of medical education, marginalized existing general practitioners and created an unnecessary stratum among doctors, which could lead to conflict. (ebf)

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