UNAIR NEWS – Mahfud MD, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) attended the inauguration ceremony of medical specialists and subspecialist of Universitas Airlangga Faculty of Medicine (FK UNAIR) on Thursday, September 22, 2022. In his speech, Mahfud said that 140 freshly inaugurated specialists and sub-specialists are going to use their expertise in serving the community. “Return Allah SWT’s blessings by performing your services to the community,” he said.
In the 1970s, doctor occupation was rare. Regional health service consisted of clinics and mantri (health workers substituting doctors). Doctors can only be found in big cities, only once a week. Because only brilliant and wealthy students can study medicine.
With the independence of Indonesia, many doctors and specialists were born. Children from middle-class families can pursue medical studies. “Therefore, you should return the blessings by devoting yourself to the development of Indonesia. This is the wisdom of independence,” he said.
Graduating from UNAIR and learning medicine at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital was an even more special case. In historical records, Dr. Soetomo played an important role in the rise of Indonesia. The founder of Boedi Utomo, who coined the idea of Sumpah Pemuda, united the nations until Indonesia became independent, and great doctors were born.
“Each of you has your own life path, one of Allah’s verses analogizes that human life is like flowing water with foam on the surface. Some stops, flow around where they will meet again somewhere and pass through. Be the flowing water, the dedicated and useful ones for the community. Don’t be a pointless foam,” said the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court.
Health to indicate nation’s welfare
Mahfud hoped that the inauguration will mark the momentum for all academicians at the Faculty of Medicine, where the outputs will continuously be devoted to achieving the nation’s goals in developing the community’s welfare.
“One of the nation’s objectives is to develop general welfare, which has three indicators. First, a stable economy; second, good health; third, good education. Good welfare will take Indonesia to advance and achieve its objectives,” he said.
Mahfud also stated the importance of the equal distribution of medical specialists. Therefore it becomes a part of the policy of the local government and the Health Ministry.
On the other hand, the Dean of UNAIR Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Dr. Budi Santoso, dr., Sp.OG(K) said that apart from the increasing doctor production, the problem of the maldistribution of doctors in Indonesia must also be supported by regulations from the central and regional governments.
“In which the domestic government, the provincial government, and the regional government issued supporting regulations where doctor graduates and specialists are not clustered in big cities but can spread throughout Indonesia,” he added.
As of now, the applied regulation is the empowerment of medical specialists, which allows them to go to specific regions or work in big cities. “This unsupportive policy needs to be reviewed to put an equal distribution of doctors,” Prof Budi said.
Author: Ismaya
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
