JAKARTA - The Executive Office of the President (KSP) team found that the medical oxygen supply in the South Tangerang area, Banten, was still able to meet the needs, meaning the pandemic situation was still pretty much under control.
No queue for medical oxygen was seen. However, the oxygen price was still above the average of the normal price before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This situation was directly reported by the KSP team on Monday (26/7). In addition to seeing the oxygen’s availability, the team also monitors the supply of vaccines and COVID-19 therapeutic drugs. The team also plans to visit other provinces in Java as well.
The official field monitoring agenda to health facilities in Banten province includes a visit to the South Tangerang City General Hospital (RSU) and the East Ciputat Health Center in South Tangerang City.
No queues of COVID-19 patients in the emergency room or hospital wards at the South Tangerang City Hospital because the hospital implemented an online queuing system, KSP reported. Meaning, in order to get health facilities at the South Tangerang City General Hospital, prospective patients must fill out a queue list available online. This is meant to avoid crowds and hospital’s excess capacity.
Nevertheless, the ER facility at the South Tangerang Hospital is currently fully occupied with 22 patients. The hospital will continue to monitor and anticipate an increase in the number of patient queues.
Different stories occured at the East Ciputat Health Center where KSP found a number of problems. Referrals to hospitals remain a problem as hospitals fill up with patients. The health center often struggles in handling COVID-19 patients with moderate or severe conditions due to inadequate health equipment.
“It is still difficult to find available beds in hospitals. We have registered online but the queues can last for days,” said dr. Sylviana Kuswandi, one of the general practitioners at the East Ciputat Health Center.
The doctor who served 3 years of her career in the health center could only hope that the public society would follow the health protocols as part of a collective effort in reducing the COVID-19 transmission and to indirectly reduce the burden of health workers.
In addition, patients expressed their complaints as they have to wait for two weeks in order to get the delayed PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test result. It hampers the hospitals to immediately provide services to patients as PCR test results become the main standard that determine the kind of medical treatment the patient would receive.
“The results of the PCR test should come out within 1-2 days so that patients can be treated quickly and appropriately. KSP will check the cause of the delay,” said Abraham Wirotomo, KSP's Senior Advisor.
During this pandemic, the East Ciputat Health Center only provides midwifery and COVID-19 services, including COVID-19 vaccination program. The health center said in June alone there were 644 COVID-19 patients treated there with 9 of whom died.
Meanwhile, the health center said that they still had approximately 100 pills of the antiviral drug oseltamivir, which was sufficient to be given to 10 COVID-19 patients with moderate symptoms. However, it is undeniable that the availability of drugs will decrease with the increase of COVID-19 cases.
"In this case, KSP will coordinate with the Health Ministry (Kemenkes) to immediately accelerate the supply of drugs and its raw materials as well as to ensure the availability of drug supplies in various health facilities," added Abraham. The KSP team will continue the official visits to other provinces - West Java and Central Java - in the next 7 days to solve any problems that hinder the distribution of medical oxygen, anti-COVID-19 medicines and COVID-19 vaccines to the public.
