West Papua is one of the provinces in Indonesia which has, in recent years, successively won the UHC award from BPJS Kesehatan. This cannot be separated from the role and cooperation of all parties in improving health quality in West Papua.
Public Health Quality in West Papua
Based on information from the Governor of West Papua, Paulus Waterpauw, not all districts in West Papua have regional hospitals. Of the 7 existing districts, the Arfak Mountains district does not yet have a hospital.
Because of this, residents in this district have to go to the nearest hospital in other districts when they need immediate care for their health problems.
In fact, the roads to and from the Arfak Mountains are quite difficult to reach because they have to meander through the slopes and mountains.
Meanwhile, the stunting rate among children in West Papua is also very high. The national average child stunting rate in 2022 is around 21.6%. On the other hand, the lowest stunting rate in this province is still at 22.8%, namely in the Teluk Bintani district.
Besides, Arfak Mountains District has the highest stunting rate in the West Papua province, which is around 51.5%.
According to data from the Indonesian Nutrition Status Survey (SSGI), overall, the stunting rate in West Papua is 30%. In fact, in 2021, the stunting rate in this province was lower, namely 26.2%.
So, unlike the poverty rate, which has decreased, the stunting rate for the people of West Papua has actually increased by 3.8 percent.
Government Appeal to Improve Health Quality in West Papua
At the 2023 UHC Award event in Jakarta, Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ma’ruf Amin, appealed and encouraged local governments to make efforts to improve the quality of health services, for example, by improving health facilities in each district.
In addition, Ma’ruf Amin also reminded local governments in the provinces and districts to pay attention to the quality of human resources in the health sector. So, with complete health facilities and skilled human resources, the community will also receive the highest quality health services.
1. Provision of the BPJS Program for the Community
In recent years, the West Papua provincial government has succeeded in making all people in the province registered as JKN recipients. With this health service card, all West Papua people can easily access health centers, clinics, or hospitals.
2. Overcoming the Problem of Stunting in Children in West Papua
Because the child stunting rate in West Papua is still quite high, the government has made various efforts to reduce the stunting rate among children in Papua. Some of the efforts made by the government include:
- Ensuring that all babies in West Papua have access to complete basic immunization
- Adding facilities and infrastructure such as posyandu facilities, clean water, etc.
- Provide supplementary food to infants up to a certain age.
3. Improving the Quality of Human Resources for Health Services
The low level of population density in Papua is one of the reasons why the quality of human resource management in the region is still low. Because of this, the government is also considering improving the HR quality tasked with providing health services in West Papua, for example:
- Conducting training for village cadres such as village midwives, health workers, PKK (Family Welfare Program) activists, etc.
- Not only that, other training, such as how to use a public health recording and reporting application, will also be very useful. That way, health workers can organize population health data easily and efficiently in time.
The West Papua government’s success in developing health services has received appreciation from BPJS Kesehatan. This appreciation is in the form of the 2023 Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Award. The Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ma’ruf Amin, presented the award.
To conclude, Waterpauw said he was optimistic and strongly committed to improving health quality in West Papua. He also added that the award he received was a motivation to make various breakthroughs in the field of health services for the community in the future.
