Handling the Pandemic is Problematic: The Government is Increasingly Neglecting the Protection of Health Workers

PRESS RELEASE
Handling the Pandemic is Problematic: The Government is Increasingly Neglecting the Protection of Health Workers

The government's policy on handling Covid-19 is again causing problems. On February 1 2021, the Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, sent a letter to the Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin regarding a request for an extension of monthly incentive payments and death benefits for health workers and participants in the Specialist Doctor Education Program (PPDS) dealing with Covid-19. The letter states the amount of incentives and death benefits for health workers which have been cut by the government.

The amount of incentives and death benefits for health workers has been regulated in Minister of Health Decree Number 2539 of 2020. In these regulations, the amount of incentives received by health workers varies: Specialist Doctors Rp. 15 million; General Practitioner and Dentist Rp. 10 million; Midwives and Nurses Rp. 7.5 million; and other medical personnel Rp. 5 million. Meanwhile, in a letter sent by the Minister of Finance, the incentives that health workers are entitled to are cut by 50 percent.

It didn't stop there, at the end of January, Indonesia was at the top of Asia with the most active cases, namely 174,083 cases. Poor governance is not balanced by budget politics that focuses on handling the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of increasing the health budget, in 2021 the government will instead increase the infrastructure budget by around 67 percent or to IDR 417.4 trillion compared to the previous year which was only IDR 281.1 trillion.

In the 2021 APBN, the budget for the health sector, especially handling Covid-19, has decreased quite drastically. In 2020, the government allocated a special Covid-19 health budget of IDR 87.55 trillion. Meanwhile, in 2021 the budget will decrease to IDR 60.5 trillion. This cut in incentives for health workers is thought to be due to a decrease in the budget allocation for Covid-19.

The government's poor management of handling Covid-19 can also be seen in the aspect of budget realization for distribution of incentives and death compensation for health workers. As of December 11 2020, the government had only provided incentives for health workers to 485,557 people with a total budget of IDR 3.09 trillion. Meanwhile, new death compensation was given to 153 families or 20 percent of the 647 health workers who died with a budget of IDR 46.2 billion.

There are still many health workers who have not received incentives and death compensation, one of the reasons is because the government has poor data management. Based on LaporCovid-19 data as of January 26 2020, there were 75.6 percent or around 120 people out of 160 health workers who had not received incentives. Meanwhile, another 24 percent received incentives but they were not in accordance with Minister of Health Decree 2539/2020.

Based on the above, we urge that:

1. The government cancels policies related to cutting incentives for health workers;

2. The government will immediately realize the provision of incentives and death benefits to health workers;

3. The government must immediately improve data related to the distribution of incentives and death benefits for health workers;

4. BPK, KPK will immediately carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the budget for handling Covid-19.

Jakarta, 3 February 2020

Citizens Coalition for Fair Health Access

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), LaporCovid19, Lokataru Foundation, Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI)

Contact Person:
Firdaus (087838822426)
Wana Alamsyah (087878611344)