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Lawmaker demands govt review family doctor program
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A health official from the Waelengga community health center (Puskesmas) in Watunggene subdistrict, Kota Komba district, East Manggarai regency, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, prepares a polio vaccine for a baby on the first day of national polio immunization week in March. The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) is ready to investigate further the distribution of fake vaccines in response to rising public concerns. (thejakartapost.com/Markus Makur)
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lawmaker demanded Sunday that the government review its plan to open the primary healthcare physician program (DLP) as a new study program for medical students.
The DLP aims to improve the competence of doctors who serve at community health centers (Puskesmas) to support the national health insurance JKN program. The program is based on the 2013 Medical Education Law and has been resisted by doctors.
The program obliges medical students to take two to three years of education after completing their four-year undergraduate degree in medicine in addition to their professional studies and internships. This will effect their career paths as they will have to spend more than eight years studying before receiving a license to practice.
“The program has not started yet but members of both the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) and government have brought up its various pros and cons,” lawmaker Muhammad Iqbal of House of Representatives' Comission IX overseeing health said as quoted by tribunnews.com.
(Read also: Disadvantaged regions to get more medical specialists)
In January, IDI chairman Ilham Oetama Masis said that the DLP was not the right program to implement as there was still a lack of doctors in several regions in Indonesia. The program would hold back medical services for public, Ilham said. (hol/wit)
