Dio Suhenda, Jakarta – The government has reiterated that it would make good on its promise of giving the families of acute kidney injury (AKI) victims monetary compensation, as the process has dragged on for months since the affliction swept the country and killed over 200 children last year.
Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that he would not hesitate to alert President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo should the compensation rollout, now under the supervision of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Ministry, continue to be sluggish.
"The issue has already been raised to the coordinating minister, and if it continues to be unresolved at that level [...] I will bring it to someone above the coordinating minister, since I have promised I will see to [resolving the AKI cases] thoroughly," Budi said when quizzed by lawmakers on how the government planned to hold itself accountable for the string of AKI cases, as reported by Kompas.
According to Health Ministry data from Dec. 26, Indonesia reported a total of 325 AKI cases in 2022, with 203 of those resulting in deaths. The injuries are thought to be caused by toxic cough syrups produced by a handful of pharmaceutical companies looking to cut production costs – raising the alarm about the weak supervision of drugs sold in the country.
Much of the sticking point surrounding the compensation rollout stemmed from the statement by the Social Affairs Ministry that it did not have the budget to pay for the compensation for AKI victims.
"I have [told] the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister [Muhadjir Effendy] that [we] don't have the money," Social Affairs Minister Tri "Risma" Rismaharini said last week.
"If we give [the victims compensation] once, but they need it for multiple rounds of hemodialysis, where would all that money come from?", she said, referring to the medical process that sees a patient's blood processed through a filter to have the poisons removed.
Legal representative for the families of victims, Tegar Putuhena, also criticized Risma's unwillingness to visit children still hospitalized from AKI, as he accused Risma and her fellow ministers to be "lacking in empathy."
"[Risma] is now saying that [her ministry] does not have the budget, but she has not even once visited the children who have been crippled [due to AKI]," Tegar said, as quoted by Kompas on Tuesday. "All the victims we are representing have never received any polite gesture from the ministers, let alone compensation."
Trials for a class action lawsuit filed by 25 families of AKI victims against the health and finance ministries, drug regulator the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and at least eight drug companies are currently ongoing at the Central Jakarta District Court.