Matter of priorities

Letters

THE report ‘Indonesia’s medical workers threaten to stop treating Covid-19 patients’ in the Southeast Asian Times on March 30 makes for a very depressing reading.
We learn from the grim report that the medical workers threaten to stop treating Covid-19 infected patients if they are not provided with protecting clothing.
Why does Indonesia not have adequate protective clothing for the frontline medical workers?
The Indonesian Medical Association in conjunction with the Medical Professors Council at the University of Indonesia, the Indonesian Dentist Association and the Indonesian Nurses Association have issued the warning to the Indonesian government to safeguard the medical workers.
They are right to point out who will treat the patients if the medical workers are themselves infected?
The shortage of protective clothing does indeed put the medical workers in grave danger of catching the disease.
The report tells us Indonesia’s health facilities are not ready.
Why not?
Only a few hospitals have ventilators.
Only two beds in the intensive care unit per 100,000 people, the lowest in Southeast Asia.
How come Indonesia has such poor health infrastructure with all the aid it gets from Australia?
Is it because a disproportionate amount goes into bolstering the Indonesian military capability?
There is no shortage of military and police riot gear in Indonesia, is there?
The coronavirus pandemic exposes the wrong priorities of not only the Indonesian State authorities but others in the region as well.
For example see the March 30 Canberra Times article ‘Coronavirus: Experts warn of health catastrophe in Papua New Guinea’. Warnings of ‘bodies in the streets’ if Covid-19 takes off in PNG.
PNG is another country that receives heaps in Australian foreign aid.
Where’s the aid money going?
There is a clear need for governments to rethink priorities to serve the public good.

Rajend Naidu,
Sydney

One thought on “Matter of priorities

  • True indeed!! It will be a disaster as we don’t have the facilities to cater for infected ones. Bodies will be lying in streets and no one will bother to claim. I hope scientists develop its vaccine before covid-19 hits PNG.

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