Indonesian Healthcare Workers Suffering from “Double Burden”: NGOs

On June 18, 2021, medical staff were looking for Covid-19 coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit of a Bogor hospital due to an increase in Covid-19 coronavirus infection rates in Indonesia.

Aditya Stocker | AFP | Getty Images

According to global health and humanitarian organizations, Indonesian health workers are under pressure to care for Covid-19 patients while quickly vaccinating the national population if infections increase. ..

“The Indonesian health workers suffer from a double burden,” said Edhie Rahmat, Indonesian managing director of Project HOPE, short for Health Opportunities for People Everywhere.

First, they need to take care of both Covid patients and patients with other diseases. Second, they are “being pressured to provide rapid care to large numbers of populations in need of vaccination,” he told CNBC via email.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the total number of infections exceeded the 2 million mark on Monday. More than 55,594 people died from Covid-19 in Indonesia. Meanwhile, around 8.9% of Indonesia’s population have been vaccinated at least once and 4.6% of the country have been fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.

The longer the pandemic lasts and the more cases there are, the more it will affect their workload and make them more susceptible to infections and infections.

Edhie Rahmat

Project HOPE Indonesian Secretary General

“The longer the pandemic lasts and the larger the number of cases, the more it affects their workload and makes them prone to infections and infections,” he said with limited and high beds in the intensive care unit. He said there was a lack of high quality personal protective equipment. Country.

Almost 980 medical workers died of Covid-19, according to Lapor Covid-19.

Health care workers are also at risk of developing mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Ramat said.

“Most Indonesian health professionals have no experience dealing with such a long-term crisis,” Yogi Mahendra, an emergency response specialist in Southeast Asia at Project Hope, said in a statement.

Rising number of cases

Indonesian coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in the last few weeks after the Eid holiday in May.

“Most Indonesians, regardless of their religion, enjoy this meeting and celebrate with lots of food, handshakes and conversation,” said Ramat.

Officials announced 29 stricter restrictions on the infection hotspot this week, Reuters reported that it was curbing the spread of the virus.

In these so-called “red zones”, religious activities have been suspended in places of worship, but restaurants, cafes and shopping centers can only operate at a capacity of 25%, Reuters said.

Java, the country’s most populous island, was hit hardest by the second wave, Ramat said.

He also noted that some of the vaccinated health care workers were infected with Covid-19 and noted reports from Kudu District officials that 350 such cases had been discovered. did.

“We also received reports that a midwife near kudu and two doctors in different areas died at the same time,” he said.

He added that even if the health workers’ symptoms were mild, they would have to be quarantined for 10 days and unable to work in the hospital during a “population” of cases.

“This is a serious problem and it can ruin the health system,” said Ramat.

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