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Late incentives haunt medical workers deployed at COVID-19 frontlines
Medical personnel working at makeshift hospitals commonly rely on these incentives as their sole income as they cannot work elsewhere.
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A man holding fishing equipment passes by a mural depicting medical workers on Jl. Raya Setu, Cipayung, East Jakarta, on Sept. 7, 2020. (JP/P.J. Leo)
T
he government drew criticism for failing to disburse timely incentives to medical workers stationed at COVID-19 frontlines after a nurse was allegedly removed from her position as punishment for publicly raising the issue.
Medical workers, including those recruited as volunteers, who meet certain government criteria are promised financial incentives that vary according to their roles. Nurses can earn up to Rp 7.5 million (US$529) per month and doctors up to Rp 10 million.
But data from the Health Ministry has revealed that tens of thousands of medical workers have yet to receive their monthly incentives for late 2020 to April this year.
"We need time to disburse the funds because a lot of medical workers are involved and we need to open new bank accounts for them," the acting head of the ministry's human resource management and development, Kirana Pritasari, told a virtual press briefing on Tuesday.
A recently issued ministerial regulation requires incentives to be directly disbursed to individual bank accounts instead of to the workers' health facilities. However, Kirana said some medical workers had yet to receive their new accounts at state-owned banks that had partnered with the ministry.
The issue drew further outcry after a nurse working at the national COVID-19 hospital, Wisma Atlet in Central Jakarta, sought assistance from civil groups.
The nurse, along with a doctor who does not work at the hospital, revealed last week that they had received reports from 1,500 nurses, many at Wisma Atlet, who had yet to receive their November and December incentives last year. Some 400 other nurses have not received their January incentives and 1,500 have yet to be compensated for work done between February and March, according to the nurse and the doctor, who named themselves the Indonesian Medical Workers Network.
