Sanusa Medika’s CEO, Andrew Rochford, and Aspen Medical founder and executive chairman, Glenn Keys, spoke with The Jakarta Post's Yohana Belinda about their plans and challenges in developing healthcare services, as well as ways to help the country stem the flood of Indonesians seeking medical treatment overseas instead of using local hospitals.

Question: How does Indonesia welcome foreign direct investment (FDI) in health care?

Andrew Rochford (AR): I have been here for seven years and it’s become easier.

I think that the wonderful thing about if you look into any economics of trade, is if you actually invite more of that and you grow the market and increase the standards within the market, everyone that's already in the market will see the benefit.

Even something as simple as how many people leave Indonesia to go to Singapore to spend their dollars on health care.

If we can work together, everyone in Indonesia, all the other hospitals, everybody looking at the workforce, lifts the standards, people will think instead of going to Singapore, I am going to stay in my country.

Indonesia has many talented doctors, but are there enough to improve the healthcare system in the country?

AR: The healthcare workforce is part of a challenge. When you've got 280 million people, it would be a big challenge to provide enough skilled and educated and trained healthcare workers. I mean we have a hard time in Australia servicing just 26 million people.

So, where I think there is value that we can offer is around knowledge transfer, training opportunities, including more skilled training for those that are already qualified. Then how we can bring some of that knowledge from outside Indonesia to help grow its workforce and provide health care.

Glenn Keys (GK): Training is important. We see it as something that we do every day because we can't just rely on the government or the universities to train people. We have to be part of that answer, too, particularly at a time when there is such a shortage of health professionals.

Is there any specific challenge in implementing the training system for clinicians in Indonesia? Since it's quite hard for foreign doctors to work in the country.

AR: I think we're working very closely with the Ministry of Health, as well as with leaders like [West Java Governor] Pak Ridwan Kamil, to figure out how we can be part of that solution for a market like Indonesia that has a lot of people who do go to Singapore.

It's about finding the balance between how we can take what the rest of the world is doing well in terms of workforce and how we can introduce that into the Indonesian market.

However, we need to understand what the local workforce wants, their concerns and how we can be part of supporting that. I think that's the tricky balance because the last thing we want to do is to take anyone's job.

What we actually want is to enhance people's jobs by offering them the ability to upskill, get international-level training and to offer better services for their patients.

Australia provides a good example of how we've found that balance. I'm a clinician, I work in Australia, and I can tell you right now that there is no shortage of patients for me to see just because we have many foreign doctors.

How do you ensure healthcare services are accessible to all members of the public?

AR: We want to offer services to everybody. In certain circumstances, we can provide international-level care, services, and diagnostics to those who normally go elsewhere. So instead of flying on a plane to Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia or Australia, you can get in the car and go to Depok.

It's not only important for the patient; but it's also important for the workforce. It's important for us to bring training, lift that standard, and offer international care down the road.

But we're also offering it to the other market segments, such as those falling under the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS), will be a part of what we do.

GK: I think the other thing is that it's very clear looking at Indonesia's economy, and its middle class is growing. The percentage of growth for Indonesia into the next few years is fantastic.

With a growing economy comes more disposable income for people and health is always a very important aspect for people to engage with.

Therefore, we see the market growth as well. So, while there are already some fantastic providers in the market, we believe that there is room for more development.