By A member of the House of Representatives’ (DPR’s) Hajj Monitoring Team, Ade Rezki Pratama, made the remarks in a written statement received on Tuesday.
“We found that many health workers at Indonesia’s Hajj Health Clinics were overwhelmed in handling sick Hajj pilgrims, especially many of those who were sick were older adults,” he said.
The Hajj pilgrims were suffering from diverse diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and even dementia, Pratama noted.
He also highlighted that the number of Indonesian Hajj pilgrims who died reached 220 as of June 29, 2023.
In view of this, he emphasized that the government, especially the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Religious Affairs, maximize and optimize the number of health personnel for future Hajj pilgrimage implementation.
The step is needed so that when there are problems and complaints related to Hajj implementation, they can be handled quickly and appropriately, he explained.
In addition to the number of health personnel, he also called for the optimization of the supply of medicines.
“Actually, the government, through the Ministry of Health, has predicted from the start. However, it turns out that there are several cases, such as dementia, which have reduced the supply of medicines,” he said.
He further said that Indonesian health workers cannot buy certain medicines in Saudi Arabia because those medicines are only available in Indonesia. To resolve this issue, medicines must be brought from Indonesia.
“Apart from that, it is because the medicines here contain psychotropics. Moreover, there is an increasing number of cases, especially those of dementia, which makes it quite hard for our health workers,” he added.
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