Guarantee Equal Rights to Public Health and Protect Whistleblowers

PRESS RELEASE:

GUARANTEE EQUAL RIGHTS TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND PROTECT WHISPONDERS

Monday, January 25 2021.

LaporCovid-19, YLBHI, and CISDI again remind each individual to fulfill the right to health. Apart from that, the three organizations also asked the government to ensure protection, safety and security for residents who report the Covid-19 disaster that befell themselves or their families. This request was made following the emergence of responses and news that cornered civil society's efforts when conveying citizen reports regarding the difficulty of getting services due to full health facilities. This statement was conveyed in a press conference via online media Zoom on Monday (25/01).

Since early December 2020, hospitals around Jabodetabek and various other areas on the island of Java have begun to have difficulty accommodating patients. This causes queues of patients to receive treatment, thereby increasing the risk of death. Signs of the hospital's collapse are increasing as we enter January 2021.
Moreover, throughout December 2020, population mobility tends to increase with the simultaneous regional head elections and the long Christmas New Year holiday. As a result, the number of cases of patients being rejected by hospitals because they are full is increasing.

LaporCovid-19 received reports of patients who died while traveling, including public transportation, at home, in hospital hallways, in the ER, and at the Community Health Center due to difficulties in getting intensive care. From the end of December 2020 to January 21 2021, at least LaporCovid19 received 34 patient case reports
rejected by the hospital because it was full.

However, when LaporCovid-19 and CISDI submitted reports of Depok City residents who died while looking for a hospital on December 19 2020,

The Depok Task Force delivered a negative response and cornered the reporter in a number of statements in the mass media.

On December 19 2020 afternoon, the patient's family initially contacted the Covid-19 Task Force in their area to request an ambulance because the reporting father's condition was a Covid-19 suspect. The father had symptoms of shortness of breath, but an ambulance was not sent until after two hours of waiting. The family finally took his father using an online taxi around to a number of hospitals in Depok City and South Jakarta until the patient died on the way after being rejected at a number of hospitals. The patient's family then reported this to LaporCovid-19 on January 3 2021 after he
finished undergoing self-isolation.

Apart from explaining it in a release to the media (see Kompas, 19 January 2021), LaporCovid-19 has provided a chronology of events to the Depok Covid-19 Task Force in a telephone communication on Saturday (16/1/2021) with the aim of conveying the situation on the ground and encouraging improvements.

In this communication, the Health Office and the Depok Task Force admitted that hospitals in their area had been full since early December 2021. However, at the same time they asked for data on people who reported victims who died while traveling, even though it was LaporCovid-19's commitment not to disclose the data of reporters. Especially,
The reporter also refused to open his data to avoid stigma and terror, so that the request could not be fulfilled by LaporCovid-19.

Regarding the reasons why the reporter's data is needed for purposestracing?, LaporCovid-19 has confirmed that the reporter has submitted the chronology to the health center and related government officials to support the process?tracing?. Patients who died have also been buried according to the Covid-19 protocol. The reporter and his family who were found to be positive for Covid-19 have also completed 14 days of self-isolation. With this information, we hope that the Health Office and the Depok Task Force will no longer urge LaporCovid-19 to reveal the data of the reporting family.

The Health Department and the Depok Task Force do not need to corner and accuse LaporCovid-19 and CISDI of being uncooperative by providing statements to be more transparent through statements in a number of media (see attached MetroTv link, etc.). What the Health Department and the Depok Task Force should do is learn lessons from this case so that it doesn't happen again. Improvements to the inpatient system for Covid-19 patients must be carried out immediately. Not by blaming LaporCovid-19 for not wanting to reveal the reporter's data. On the other hand, LaporCovid-19 actually sees that what the Health Department and the Depok Task Force are doing is an attempt to cover up their failures so far which they are unable to do.controlling the pandemic in his environment which resulted in an increase in the number of sick people and overflowing hospital capacity.

This case in Depok City is only the tip of the iceberg. LaporCovid-19 also received reports of patients dying because they did not receive services or were queuing for the hospital ICU, for example patients died at home in Bantul City, Yogyakarta, at the Community Health Center in Tangsel, Banten, in the hospital hallway in Surabaya City, and in the ER at a number of hospitals in Jabodetabek.

LaporCovid-19 revealed this to encourage changes in health facility services and control the pandemic. One of the problems with the availability of health facility services stems from the handling of Covid 19 which places some obligations on the Regional Government as shown in the determination of the PSBB which requires a Regional request. Even though Article 10 of Law 6/2018 clearly regulates that (1) the Central Government determines and revokes a Public Health Emergency. (2) The Central Government determines and revokes the determination of entry points and/or areas within the country affected by a public health emergency. Article 5 (1) of Law 6/2018 also clearly regulates that the Central Government is responsible for implementing Health Quarantine in
Entrance and area in an integrated manner. While the Regional Government is not at the forefront of determining this public health emergency as regulated in Article 5 (2) Law 6/2018 in implementing Health Quarantine as intended in paragraph (1), the Central Government?caninvolving the Regional Government. As a result of shifting responsibility to the regional government, this determination will definitely be slow and preparations for handling it, including health service facilities, will take time to anticipate.

This appeal was also addressed to mass media colleagues, who repeatedly asked LaporCovid19 to provide the contacts and addresses of patients whose families died while traveling in Depok.

LaporCovid-19 is committed to protecting the identity of the reporter. Moreover, the reporter also did not want his identity to be revealed to the public. The three organizations appealed to the mass media not to focus on dramatizing cases by depicting victims and reporters, but rather on encouraging change and improvement of health services. The public needs the media to monitor the handling of Covid-19 critically, including checking information from various sides in balancing the distribution of information between bed availability (BOR) data submitted by the government and the reality of the difficulty of patients finding ICU and isolation places, without having to sacrifice the rights of patients and reporters.

Guarantee of the Right to Health and Protection of Whistleblowers

The Indonesian Constitution and Legislation clearly guarantee that every citizen can participate, advance himself and his rights collectively to develop the nation and state and has the right to communicate and obtain information, process and convey information using available channels.

The 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia states:

Article 28C paragraph (2):Everyone has the right to advance themselves infight for their rights collectively to build society, nation andhis country

Article 28F:?Everyone has the right to communicate and obtain information to develop their personal and social environment, and has the right to search, obtain, own, store, process and convey information using all types of available channels.?.

We can also see the same guarantee inLaw Number 39 of 1999About Human Rights,Law Number 11 of 2005 concerning Ratification
Convention on Economic Rights, and many other laws.

At the same time, the State, especially the government, has obligations, which in Poriginating from 28H paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitutionmentioned?:?Every person has the right to live in physical and spiritual prosperity, to have a place to live, and to have a good and healthy living environment and the right to receive health services?.Article 28I paragraph (4)mentions:
Protection, promotion, enforcement and fulfillment of human rights areresponsibility of the state, especially the government.?These government legal obligations are also clearly spread across many other laws such asConstitutionNumber 39 of 2009 concerning Health,Law Number 6 of 2018
About Health Quarantine,Law Number 26 of 2007 concerningDisaster managementand others.

Health Law Number 36 of 2009 concerning Health in particularArticle 5 (1)guarantee SEveryone has the same right to obtainaccess to resources in the health sector.Article 17 Health Laweven arrange The government is responsible for providing access to information,
education, and health service facilities to improve and maintainhighest degree of health.

So it is clear, all forms of participation, criticism, processing and conveying information regarding the handling of the pandemic and health are guaranteed by law in Indonesia. Apart from that, LaporCovid-19, YLBHI and CISDI also invite mass media colleagues to adhere to the Journalism Code of Ethics in processing and conveying information. Specifically, these three refer toCodeJournalism Ethics Article 1organize independent and balanced reporting. This information is important to ensure good handling of the pandemic.

_______________________________________________________

Contact:
Irma Hidayana (LaporCovid19)
WA: +1917-941-9383
Muh. Isnur (YLBHI)
Amru Aginta Seberang (CISDI)
WA 0877-8273-4584

Attachment:

Chronology:
January 3, 2021
LaporCovid-19 received a report from a resident who said that his father died in an online taxi while trying to find a hospital.

1. About a week before December 19, patient X had a headache and fever, so he went to a private hospital in Depok City. There the patient underwent several tests such as X-rays and blood checks, then was declared a Covid-19 suspect with pneumonia. However, the situation still seems to allow for self-isolation. Because patient X was placed in the Covid ER where the place was not clean and not suitable. He couldn't get a bed and had to sit on a waiting bench for almost two days.
2. When taking care of the administration for inpatient care, it becomes difficult and you are asked to give a down payment of IDR 1 million if you want to get a room (even though the patient is a BPJS holder). Finally, patient X decided to self-isolate.
   
3. When he returned home, his condition did not improve and his body became weaker.
   
4. On December 19, in the afternoon, patient X was no longer able to communicate and he seemed very short of breath. The family asked for help from residents and the local Task Force to find an ambulance. After waiting two hours, no ambulances were available and all were used. Finally, the family took him by online taxi and went to Hospital B. However, he was rejected because the emergency room was full. Then they suggested going to Hospital C, but when we got there we were rejected because the emergency room was full. Finally, when he was about to be taken to D Hospital in South Jakarta, he was gone.
5. The patient's family then reported their father's death to the neighborhood and the local health center. The body of the deceased has been buried according to the Covid-19 protocol. The deceased's positive test results were only released by a private hospital in Depok City on the day the patient died or about a week after the test. The entire family of the deceased has also undergone examination and all are positive for Covid-19. They have finished undergoing independent isolation.

Media link attachment:

• https://www.metrotvnews.com/play/bVDCQ2vv-teka-teki-patient-covid-19-meninggal-di-taksi
• https://kompas.id/baca/humaniora/kesehatan/2021/01/19/robohnya-facilities-kesehatankita/
• https://metro.tempo.co/read/1425671/satgas-covid-19-depok-ganti-kritik-lapor-covid-terkait-patient-meninggal-di-taksi
• https://news.detik.com/berita/d-5338276/satgas-depok-minta-data-ke-laporcovid-19-soal-patient-meninggal-di-taksi
• https://nasional.okezone.com/read/2021/01/18/337/2346544/patient-covid-19-meninggal-di-taksi-online-ini-pengalasanan-satgas-covid-19-depok
• https://www.liputan6.com/news/read/4460297/satgas-depok-minta-relawan-beri-data-patient-covid-19-meninggal-di-taksi-daring
• https://mnctrijaya.com/news/detail/39818/case-patient-meninggal-di-taksi-online-satgas-sesalkan-laporcovid-19-tak

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Guarantee Equal Rights to Public Health and Protect Whistleblowers