Prabowo Subianto orders audit after fatal hospital negligence in Indonesian Papua
The death of a pregnant woman and her unborn baby after she was turned away by four hospitals has forced a presidential audit of the underfunded public health system in Papua.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has ordered a complete audit of hospitals in the country’s restive easternmost provinces after a pregnant Papuan woman died, along with her unborn baby, last week because four hospitals failed to provide emergency care.
Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian said the President had demanded an immediate investigation of all hospitals involved in the case, as well as a broader review of Papua’s emergency care system.
“The President’s message was clear, this must never happen again,” Mr Tito told reporters after meeting the president late on Monday.
Papua Governor Mathius Derek Fakhiri had also been instructed to meet the family and provide assistance, while teams from the Home Affairs Ministry and the Health Ministry were dispatched to Papua’s capital Jayapura to conduct regulatory and technical audits, he added.
The case has sparked national scrutiny of Indonesia’s underfunded and underperforming public health system, and questions over whether the woman’s treatment was a result of institutional dysfunction or another example of discrimination against the country’s Melanesian minority.
Irene Sokoy, a 31-year-old mother of two from a village around 40 minutes from Jayapura, went into labour early on November 16.
Her family rushed her by speedboat and then by road to Yowari Hospital, where a doctor eventually prescribed medicine to induce birth after 15 hours of labour in which she failed to dilate beyond 5cm.
Two hours later, with the baby’s heartbeat weakening, Ms Sokoy was advised to undergo an emergency C-section that could not be conducted there because there was no obstetrician on duty.
Instead, she was referred to Dian Harapan Hospital in downtown Jayapura 40 minutes away.
But after waiting hours for an ambulance, during which her condition deteriorated, she was told at the next hospital that all beds for public health insurance patients were full.
Ms Sokoy’s family then rushed her to Abepura Regional Hospital another 15 minutes away, where they were also turned away because its operating rooms were under renovation.
In desperation, they continued on to Bhayangkara Hospital where – again – all beds reserved for national health insurance patients were full, leaving only a VIP room which required a Rp4 million ($370) deposit, money the family did not have.
Ms Sokoy and her unborn baby died en route to a fifth hospital.
Relative Fredrik Sokoy said the family was disappointed with the way the hospitals handled the case, and that multiple facilities failed to recognise the severity of Ms Sokoy’s condition, focusing on administrative and technical procedures instead of lifesaving treatment.
“This was a technical failure at the hospital. She arrived fine, she walked in and sat down normally. She was ready to give birth,” he said. “We want those responsible to be held accountable because there was negligence from the hospitals.
“It shouldn’t happen, especially in a city like this. Some hospitals rejected her, some gave all sorts of excuses; ‘Pay first or we can’t treat you’. But when you enter a hospital, the principle should be that saving a life is more important than everything else.”
He said this was Ms Sokoy’s fourth pregnancy; her third child was born premature and passed away about a year ago. Because of that, six months into her pregnancy she moved to Kensio, an island in Lake Sentani, to be closer to her parents. She is survived by her husband, and primary school-aged son and daughter.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout