Fitra Ashari, Uyu Liman, Jakarta – The government is striving to ensure that hospitals in all districts and cities are able to treat stroke patients, including conducting non-surgical intervention, to treat disruption in blood supply to the brain.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin emphasized that Prof. Dr. dr. Mahar Mardjono National Brain Center Hospital (RSPON), as the national referral hospital for stroke patients, should ensure that hospitals in 514 districts and cities in Indonesia had stroke care services.
"Open brain surgery should be able to be performed by 2024, and the RSPON should also ensure that (hospitals at the) 514 cities and districts can perform non-surgical (endovascular) coiling or thrombectomy treatment," he noted during a virtual discussion event on Monday.
The government is also attempting to ensure that hospitals are able to meet service standards in treating stroke patients, he affirmed.
Furthermore, the minister called on the Prof. dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah Central General Hospital in Denpasar City, Bali Province, to serve as a supporting hospital for health facilities in Bali, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) provinces in handling stroke patients.
"I am expecting that (at least) one hospital (each) in Jembrana District and Buleleng District (in Bali Province) should be able to offer thrombectomy and (endovascular) coiling," he said.
According to the Health Ministry's site, a stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain is blocked or ruptures, thereby resulting in a part of the brain not receiving sufficient oxygen supply carried by the blood that can cause cell and tissue death.
Symptoms of the disease include facial or limb paralysis, slurred speech, sudden loss or blurring vision, and loss of consciousness.
The Health Ministry noted that stroke is one of the four catastrophic diseases whose treatment burdens the state's finance, along with cardiovascular disease, cancer, and kidney disease
"I see that stroke is a disease that (has) very bad (impacts on) the quality of life, as the mortality (due to the illness) is the highest, and it also has high possibility to paralyze the patients," Sadikin added.