Andi Adam Faturahman, Jakarta – The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology said it would collaborate with the Ministry of Health to resolve the shortage issue in Indonesia, a plan that came after the ministry announced its plan to limit the establishment of new medical faculties in the country.
Togar Mangihut Simatupang, the acting secretary-general of the ministry, said the government will focus the distribution of doctors across Indonesia to the outermost, frontier, and disadvantaged (3T) regions.
"Regions facing doctor shortages will be supplemented with doctors from other parts of the country," he said in a brief message on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.
For example, said Togar, to enforce an equal distribution of doctors without reducing services or establishing new medical faculties, doctors in West Java – among others – will be sent to regions with doctor shortage problems, such as the Papua region.
Togar explained that his ministry and the Ministry of Health are also conducting a study to push for the improvement of medical students' performances at the existing medical faculties throughout the country.
On January 13, Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro said that the government plans to restrict the opening of medical faculties in Indonesian universities. Despite acknowledging the shortage of doctors in the country, the minister said increasing admissions to existing medical faculties is encouraged, instead of opening new faculties.
"[Expanding admissions] is faster than opening new medical faculties," he told Tempo on January 18, 2025.
According to ministry data, there are currently 117 medical faculties spread across various provinces in Indonesia, with 23 newly established in the past two years. These new faculties were opened after the government lifted its moratorium on the opening of new medical faculties.
Meanwhile, according to data from the health ministry, there are 156,000 general practitioners in Indonesia as of last year, meaning the country is still short of 124,000 general practitioners, assuming there is one general practitioner per thousand population.