Though faced with numerous health challenges, Indonesia’s decentralised health system has aims in place to improve the quality and availability of care.
Indonesia underwent a process of decentralisation at the turn of the millenium, meaning responsibility and resources for health provision were transferred to provincial and district levels. The country faces a number of health challenges, including a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (nearly 250 people die every day from the disease), high maternal mortality rates and malaria, particularly in more rural areas.
Differences and inequalities also exist between rural and urban health care access; figures show that two thirds of Indonesia’s doctors are based in Java, though one of the government’s aims is to get more doctors out to rural areas. The tsunami of 2004 also damaged the healthcare system, with both personnel and resources loss, with the World Bank estimating a loss of $91.9 million to Indonesia’s health sector . 2008’s figures estimate around one public health centre for every 30,000 people in Indonesia, and 0.6 hospital beds per 1,000 .
However, the Ministry of Health’s 2010-2014 Strategic Plan aims to prevent and overcome the health problems, and improve communities’ self-reliance. Goals include a diseases control programme to decrease the morbidity rate, an increase in the public health budget and the implementation of the ‘Minimum standards of health services’ in all districts. Around 68 percent of the population have access to improved sanitation facilities , with a goal of 86 percent set for 2015.