Andi Adam Faturahman, Jakarta – Indonesian Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono announced that Indonesia is still facing a shortage of medical and healthcare professionals. He mentioned that 4.6 percent of public health centers (puskesmas) in Indonesia do not have doctors.
"38.8 percent of our puskesmas also do not have adequate medical personnel," Dante said during the launch of the Standard Operating Procedure (SPO) for the Competency Test of Medical and Healthcare Personnel at the Ministry of Health office on Monday, October 13, 2025.
He stated that, based on data from the Ministry of Health, one-third of hospitals in Indonesia do not have the seven basic specialist doctors required to best serve patients.
Therefore, he said, with the inauguration of the SPO for the Competency Test of Medical and Healthcare Personnel, it is hoped that competent and high-quality doctors will be produced, not just in terms of quantity.
"Therefore, we are accelerating because there are two problems, namely the shortage in numbers and uneven distribution," said Dante.
The SPO for the Competency Test of Medical and Healthcare Personnel is mandated by Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health. Since May 28, the Ministry of Health has submitted a draft of this SPO.
However, as of mid-July, the SPO, which is the legal basis for implementing the competency test, has not been ratified. The absence of the SPO could make the national competency test legally flawed.
On July 18, four professional associations representing the fields of medicine, nursing, midwifery, and pharmacy urged the government to immediately ratify the SPO national competency test.
They stated that the absence of this regulation threatens the legitimacy of the examination and the future of thousands of students and graduates who are in limbo.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology inaugurated the launch of the SPO for the Competency Test of Medical and Healthcare Personnel on Monday, October 13.
Dante said that the inauguration of this SPO is expected to produce competent medical and healthcare personnel who have been tested for quality throughout Indonesia.
"In order to ensure that medical and healthcare graduates reach high competency standards, this SPO has been developed for existing medical and healthcare education," said Dante.
He explained that this competency test will also target prospective medical and healthcare personnel from vocational and professional education institutions, as well as specialists and subspecialists, with a national and international standard-based implementation.
On a similar occasion, Deputy Minister of Research and Technology Fauzan said that, with the inauguration of this SPO for the Competency Test, technical guidelines will no longer be questioned.
Despite being urgently needed, Fauzan acknowledged that the inauguration of the SPO Competency Test did not happen quickly. "We have been criticized as if we never did anything good. But, thank God, we have managed to resolve this," said Fauzan.