VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Health workers specializing in COVID-19 handling at the Bantul regional health office. The government is incentivizing health service facilities and institutions where health workers are facing a high risk of COVID-19 exposure.  Quote: The letter mentioned that specialized doctors will receive Rp15 million per person per month - 

The Health Ministry has said that the incentives offered by the government to health officers handling COVID-19 cases are based on the parameters set by the Finance Ministry’s letter No.113/2021.

The letter lays down the incentives based on several criteria, such as the ratio of the number of patients, the number of health workers on duty, and working hours, secretary of the development and human resource empowerment board at the Health Ministry, Tisa Wahjuni Putri, said here on Friday.

“The letter mentioned that specialized doctors will receive Rp15 million per person per month,” she disclosed during a talk show on ‘Acceleration effort of Health Ministry on Incentive Payment for Health Workers’.

In addition, the incentive for resident doctors (PPDS) has been set as high as Rp12.5 million, doctors and dentists at Rp10 million, nurses and midwives Rp7.5 million, and other health workers Rp5 million, she said.

“To be recorded, those amounts are the highest numbers (the upper limit), so it (incentives) cannot exceed the numbers,” she added.

Meanwhile, the criteria for health service facilities and institutions for availing the incentives is whether their health workers are at a high risk of being exposed to COVID-19, she informed.

In other words, not all health service facilities will receive the incentives, she said.

“The health service facilities deserving to receive the incentives are state hospitals, military and police hospitals, state-owned enterprise hospitals, private hospitals, and regional hospitals,” she added.

Incentives must also be provided to field hospitals like Wisma Atlet Kemayoran in Jakarta, field hospitals in Surabaya and Ambon, special hospitals for infection, and public health centers, where risk of COVID-19 exposure is high, she said.

“So, those are the criteria, but other health facilities that also can receive the incentives are port health offices,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government is providing as much as Rp300 million in compensation to families of health workers dying on duty while handling COVID-19, she informed.

“The incentive will never replace the life of health workers, but at least this hopefully can mirror the government's appreciation,” she remarked//ANT