The NS program is required to meet the needs of the type and number of qualifications of health workers in the short term
Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian Health Ministry stated that 151 health workers participating in the Health Nusantara (NS) Program are ready to serve in remote parts of Indonesia.
“The NS program is required to meet the needs of the type and number of qualifications of health workers in the short term,” Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono said in a press statement on Wednesday.
The ministry is committed to conducting health transformation through six pillars, one of which is the transformation of health human resources as the basic foundation in providing affordable and qualified health services, according to him.
Harbuwono remarked that one of the ways was the management of qualified health human resources starting from planning, providing, utilizing, improving quality, coaching, and supervising health human resources.
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The deputy health minister added that the NS program was unceasingly part of the policy of equitable access to qualified health human resources in the long term.
Harbuwono stated that NS health workers will work in teams periodically for two years in the health care system at the community health service (puskesmas). They will serve as mentors, health service providers, and program reinforcements.
He explained that as many as 51 NS participants comprised 25 medical laboratory technology experts, three midwives, 19 general practitioners, 20 dentists, eight nurses, 20 pharmacists, 21 nutritionists, 25 environmental health workers, and 10 public health workers.
“They will work in 28 health centers with remote and very remote status spread over 23 districts in 11 provinces,” he remarked.
The NS program aims to increase public access to health services in remote areas of the country.
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He affirmed that the role of health workers in puskesmas was crucial to keep the community healthy, especially through prevention, detection, response in disease prevention, and control.
Harbuwono is optimistic that puskesmas would be able to realize community independence through community empowerment in improving the health status of the community.
Through the NS program, essential and primary services, such as examinations for pregnant women, immunization for toddlers, and monitoring of child growth and development can still be run by following health protocols, he stated.
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