The Health Ministry has enlisted the support of healthtech start-up Docquity to train and recruit medical volunteers to prevent the healthcare system from becoming overloaded amid the ever-increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Docquity, a member of the Indonesian Telemedicine Association, has recorded 887 doctors – consisting of physicians and medical specialists – on its userbase as of June 11.
According to the company, the majority of medical practitioners registered on the digital platform are based in Jakarta; Tangerang, Banten and Bandung, West Java.
Those who have completed their training will be immediately deployed to a number of COVID-19 referral centers across the country, including the emergency hospital at the Kemayoran athletes village in Jakarta, under the government’s assistance.
Docquity cofounder Amit Vithal said every volunteer had regularly participated in up to four sessions of online training on various health topics through the platform.
“This enables the volunteers to gain new knowledge every day to keep up with the latest developments regarding the COVID-19 situation,” Vithal said in a statement.
Indonesian Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy Association (PERDATIN) chairman Syafri Kamsul Arif, who serves as a tutor for the online training program, said the medical volunteers had also learned various approaches in treating critically-ill COVID-19 patients.
“It’s because those who are recruited will mainly be tasked with treating [critically-ill patients], instead of patients on the early onset of the disease or patients under surveillance [PDP],” Syafri said.
Demand for qualified health workers has increased significantly amid the health crisis. However, concerns have been raised regarding their safety, especially considering reports of dozens of doctors who had succumbed to the coronavirus disease after working on the frontlines in recent months.
The government had previously allocated Rp 5.9 trillion (US$417.6 million) to be given as incentives to medical workers treating confirmed COVID-19 patients. However, many medical workers have reported that they had yet to receive any of such incentives.
