Yogyakarta (ANTARA) – The Executive Board of the Indonesian Association of Surgeons (PABI) has expressed its readiness to support the government in treating patients affected by disasters across Indonesia.
Chairman of the PABI Executive Board Dr. Heri Setyanto said here on Sunday that surgeons had received training in trauma care and patient management to help treat disaster victims.
“We have a new additional specialist qualification, namely Emergency Surgery and Traumatology. Whenever a disaster occurs, there will certainly be some of our members there,” he said.
Setyanto said PABI had collaborated with the Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center (MDMC), the National Crisis Center, and the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) in treating disaster victims.
“We surgeons have been trained for activities involving life-saving treatment for patients,” he said.
Setyanto said surgeons were equipped to treat trauma patients affected by disasters, including those requiring life-saving procedures.
“Surgeons remain the leaders in managing traumatic cases and multiple trauma,” he said.
He said PABI currently has around 4,500 surgeons nationwide, distributed across various regions of Indonesia.
He explained that the figure is supported by human resources from 25 surgical education institutions across the country.
“There used to be only 19. Now there are additional hospital-based programs as well as new surgical education institutions,” he said.
However, Setyanto said the distribution of surgeons across Indonesia remains a challenge because they are not evenly distributed, particularly in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions.
“This has been addressed by the Ministry of Health through cooperation with the Surgical College and PABI, but there are still some areas where surgeons cannot stay permanently,” he said.
More even deployment of surgeons remains necessary to ensure that people across Indonesia have access to surgical services, including during disasters.
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Translator: Agung Dwi Prakoso, Katriana
Editor: Primayanti
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