Health Ministry Readies Over 2,000 Medical Scholarships This Year

Jakarta – The Indonesian health ministry readies more than two thousand scholarships for the medical specialist, sub-specialist, and primary service family doctor education program this year.

"This scholarship is intended to cover the lack of medical specialists in Indonesia," Director for Health Worker Provision at the Ministry Oos Fatimah stated on Tuesday. 

Indonesia is still trying to achieve the target medical specialist ratio of 0.28 per 1,000 population. Currently, 46,200 medical specialists are serving 277 million Indonesians. This means that Indonesia still needs around 31,481 medical specialists.

Based on the medical specialist spread in Indonesia’s map, they are still concentrated in Jakarta, Bali, and Yogyakarta. Meanwhile, the provinces that require medical specialists comprise East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, Maluku, North Maluku, and West Papua.

The ministry stated that only five provinces have cardiologists. Internal medicine specialists are spread across six provinces, while ob-gyn specialists are available in 11 provinces.

Moreover, surgeons are spread in six provinces, anesthesiologists in four provinces, clinical pathologists in seven provinces, and radiology doctors in one province. There are no anatomical pathology specialists in Indonesia.

In addition, thoracic, cardiac, and vascular (BTKV) surgeons are only in one province, pulmonary specialists in one province, urology specialists in three provinces, neurologists in seven provinces, neurosurgeons in three provinces, and orthopedic specialists and traumatology in three provinces.

"On average, there are around 30 provinces in Indonesia that lack medical specialists. This means that we are dealing with an issue, not just from quantity standpoint, but also from distribution standpoint," she informed.

Moreover, 266 out of 681 district/city regional hospitals in Indonesia reportedly do not have seven types of basic medical specialists: pediatrician, ob-gyn, surgeon, internal medicine, anesthetist, radiologist, and clinical pathologist.

Fatimah added that the doctor scholarship program began in 2021 with a quota of 600 for medical specialists. In 2022, the figure increased to 1,676 scholarships and in 2023, it became 2,170 scholarships from the ministry and Education Fund Management Institution (LPDP).

The ministry has already implemented the first batch of medical sub-specialists scholarship program with 583 participants. For the second batch, the number of sub-specialist scholarships is 417.

Registrations for the medical specialist, sub-specialist, and primary service family doctor scholarship can be completed through the websitehttp://sibk.kemkes.go.id/. The registrations will be open from June 23 until July 12, 2023.