Covid-19 Task Force Proposes Medical Students as Volunteers

KOMPAS/BUDI SUWARNA

A student volunteer prepared a package of basic needs donated by Kompas readers through the Kompas Humanitarian Fund Foundation, on Wednesday (8/8/2020), at the Muhammadiyah Student Association Hall, Ciputat Region, South Tangerang. As many as 140 packages of basic necessities were distributed to overseas students in Ciputat who began to have difficulty meeting food needs due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Volunteers Team of the Covid-19 Control Acceleration Task Force has requested the Indonesian Medical Council to issue provisional Registration Certificates or STRs for medical students. This is meant to increase the number of medical volunteers. However, the Indonesian Medical Council cannot issue provisional STRs. The council will facilitate the distribution of internship STRs to medical students who have passed the Student Competence Test of the Medical Profession Program (UKMPPD).

Coordinator of the Volunteers Team of the Covid-19 Control Acceleration Task Force, Andre Rahadian, when contacted on Tuesday (14/4/2020) from Jakarta, explained that medical volunteers should possess STRs. To this end, he requested that the Indonesian Medical Council (KKI) make available provisional STRs to medical interns and medical students not yet following the UKMPPD in order to serve as medical volunteers. If this is permissible, there will be around 5,000 additional medical volunteers from all over Indonesia.

Also read: Covid-19 Handling Command Strengthened

“If the medical personnel are already adequate, it’s indeed better to have those finishing the UKMPPD. But in anticipation of a major outbreak, we have to prepare data on pre-UKMPPD volunteers who have become (junior) co-assistants and obtained references from the professional organization,” he said.

As of 12 April 2020, the Task Force Volunteers Team had been supported by 20,122 volunteers. A total of 3,520 were medical volunteers and other healthcare personnel.

KOMPAS/KRISTI UTAMI

A woman prepares meals for the Eman Lansia meal program to be distributed to the elderly in Tegal, Central Java, on Thursday (4/4/2020). The meals consist of rice, vegetables, side dishes and snacks.

KKI chairman Bambang Supriyatno said STRs were required to ascertain somebody’s medical status. The KKI cannot issue provisional STRs for medical students who haven’t yet joined the UKMPPD because they have not yet been tested to become doctors.

If they still want to work as volunteers, medical students who haven’t yet finished the UKMPPD can serve as non-medical volunteers. They can have an optimal role in the Covid-19 information and awareness-raising division. “If they are assigned to the call center section, for instance, they will certainly perform better for being more knowledgeable about Covid-19 than lay people,” he added.

For medical interns, they can use the internship STRs they possess to assist in Covid-19 control activity. They don’t need to become volunteers with assignments in other regions. It’s enough for them to execute their task at the hospital where they are under internship.

He continued that medical students who have already passed the UKMPPD could serve as medical volunteers by promptly handling their internship STRs. He promised that the KKI could issue internship STRs within a maximum of seven days after being applied for. This is on the condition that, according to him, the post-UKMPPD medical students have fulfilled all requirements, including taking the Hippocratic Oath.

We make sure that the KKI will immediately give recognition.

As Indonesia is facing the Covid-19 pandemic, the oath taking can be conducted online. “We make sure that the KKI will immediately give recognition,” he said.

Besides, he indicated, doctors under internship would also be assigned to Covid-19 hospitals close to their campuses, instead of other cities under normal conditions. Their medical internship lasts for a minimum of six months. Thereafter, the KKI will issue definitive STRs.

Head of the Human Resources Development and Empowerment Agency (BPPSDM) for Healthcare, Ministry of Health, Abdul Kadir, said 3,778 requests for medical personnel and other healthcare workers from hospitals handling Covid-19 patients had now been recorded. In detail, they request among others 188 specialists, 416 physicians, 2,364 nurses and 46 pharmacists.

Of the total, added Kadir, only around 50 percent had been met. Nonetheless, there are still healthcare volunteers waiting for their opportunities. Apart from that, the BPPSDM will also recruit 2,315 general practitioners who have passed the UKMPPD. They will be under internship amid the Covid-19 pandemic for six months.

No parental permission

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, quite a number of medical personnel wish to contribute to and get involved in the control of the disease caused by the coronavirus. Sadly, they are not permitted by their parents.

This has happened to Nadhira, 26, a general practitioner at Brawaijaya Antasari Hospital, South Jakarta. She has actually signed up for medical volunteer service with the Covid-19 Control Acceleration Task Force. She has even joined the WhatsApp groups of the Health Office and the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI).

She was thus not allowed to work as a medical volunteer.

Yet, her parents changed their minds when they noticed the many physicians who had become victims of Covid-19. She was thus not allowed to work as a medical volunteer. “I feel sad, I can’t join the activity. This is in fact the responsibility of my profession to take part, but my parents forbid me,” said Nadhira, who had been a volunteer when the tsunami hit Banten at the end of 2018.

Doctors and experts who died due to Covid-19

General practitioners and specialists - 19

Dentists - 6

Nurses - 6

Data on Thursday, 6 April 2020

1. Prof Dr dr Iwan Dwi Prahasto (Health Faculty, Gadjah Mada University/UGM)

2. Prof Dr dr Bambang Sutrisna (Public Health Faculty (FKM), University of Indonesia/UI)

3. dr Bartholomeus Bayu Satrio (IDI member, West Jakarta)

4. dr Exsenveny Lalopua, M.Kes (Bandung Health Office)

5. dr Hadio Ali K, Sp.S (Perdossi Jakarta, IDI member, South Jakarta)

6. dr Djoko Judodjoko. Sp B (IDI member, Bogor)

7. dr Adi Mirsa Putra, Sp THT-KL (IDI member, Bekasi)

8. dr Laurentius Panggabean. Sp KJ (IDI member, East Jakarta)

9. dr Ucok Martin Sp P (Health Faculty Lecturer, North Sumatra University, Medan)

10. dr Efrizal Syamsudin, MM (IDI member, Prabumulih)

11. dr Ratih Purwarini, MSI (IDI member, East Jakarta)

12. Vice Admiral [Ret.] dr Jeanne PMR Winaktu, Sp BS (IDI member, Central Jakarta)

13. Prof Dr dr Nasrin Kodim, MPH (Epidemiologist, FKM UI)

14. dr Bernadetta AF Tuwsnakotta Sp THT (IDI member, Makassar)

15. dr Lukman Shebubakar Sp OT (IDI member, South Jakarta)

16. dr Ketty Herawati Sultana (IDI member, South Tangerang)

17. dr Heru Sutantyo (IDI member, South Jakarta)

18. dr Wahyu Hidayat, Sp THT (IDI member, Bekasi regency)

19. dr Naek L Tobing (Sexologist)

20. drg Umi Susana w, Sp PM (Dentist)

21. drg Yuniarto Budi Santosa, MKM (Dentist)

22. drg Amutavia P Artsianti, Sp Ort (Dentist)

23. drg Roselani Widajati Odang, Sp Prost (Dentist)

24. drg Gunawan Oentaryo, Mkes (Dentist)

25. drg Anna Herlina Ratnasari (Dentist)

(Note: dr = medical doctor, Sp = specialist)