Medical interns sent to Covid-19 front lines

HEALTH minister Terawan Agus Putranto is in hot water because of a recent comment about having deployed thousands of medical interns to the front lines of the nation’s Covid-19 treatment efforts.

“We still have 3,500 interns and 800 Nusantara Sehat (Archipelago Health programme) workers – in addition to 685 volunteers such as lung specialists, anaesthetists, internists, general practitioners and nurses – who are ready to be deployed and to help if a larger workforce is needed,” Terawan said last week.

He said 16,286 medical interns and volunteers had already been deployed to Covid-19 referral hospitals and labs.

His statement, the latest of his comments to draw public criticism, followed reports that more than 100 doctors had died of Covid-19 and growing concerns the nation’s healthcare system was facing collapse.

In the Indonesian system, recent medical graduates must, after passing a national competency exam, sign up for a one-year internship.

It is split between a hospital and a community health centre, and each segment is six months long.

This period of hands-on study is required to obtain a medical licence and to be eligible for subsequent specialisation residencies.

In response to the pandemic, the government shortened the internship to nine months, decreasing the time spent at hospitals to minimise the interns’ exposure to Covid-19.

During this period, interns treat patients under the supervision of doctors.

The government pays interns in the western part of the country 3.15 million rupiah (RM881) per month, and those in the eastern part 3.6 million rupiah (RM1,007) per month.

But facing the uncertainty of the pandemic, many young doctors-tobe have decided to put off their internships.

In addition, graduates who have tested positive for Covid-19, are pregnant or have comorbidities are currently prohibited from taking part in the programme.

Only about 60% of the quota was filled for the first 2020 internship cohort, which began in May, two months after Indonesia reported its first Covid-19 cases, according to the Indonesian Doctor Internship Committee, appointed by the Health Ministry to oversee the programme. — The Jakarta Post/ANN