Ministry of Health (Indonesia)

The Ministry of Health is a government ministry which organize public health affairs within the Indonesian government.

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History

Ministry of Health was formed on 19 August 1945. The ministry is responsible for public health affairs in Indonesia. The ministry is led by a minister who is responsible to the president and part of the cabinet. Commonly, the minister usually came from medical doctor, however some of them were military doctor. Since 2009, the government has been required to allocate 5% of state budget for health sector. However, the mandatory 5% state budget for health sector was achieved in 2019.
In 2001, the ministry was merged with Department of Social Affairs into Department of Health and Social Welfare, however the merger was short-lived and both departments were reestablished. On 27 November 2001, Board for Development and Empowerment of Human Resources for Health was established.
Government Regulation through President No. 47/2009 concerning the Establishment and Organization of State Ministries issued on November 3 2009, changed all forms of Departments, Offices of State Ministers and Offices of the Coordinating Minister into State Ministries, therefore the nomenclature of the Department of Health was renamed into Ministry of Health.
On 23 September 2021, National Institute of Health Research and Development will be transformed into Agency for Health Policies Development, a regulatory agency intended to provide only policies and standards making for state health activity, no longer doing research as the research part will be relinquished to National Research and Innovation Agency. Thus, on 7 November 2021, the Ministry issued order to NIHRD and its child agencies to halt their activities per 31 December 2021 as unit under auspices of Ministry of Health, effectively started the dismantlement of Balitbangkes. In the order, NIHRD will split into three parts: one part relinquished to BRIN, one part to become BKPK, and the rest of the Balitbangkes part in regional level will be relinquished to local government where the NIHRD branch formerly existed for being transformed into local-government run public health laboratories for being integrated as part of state public health laboratories system.

Ministers

Organization

The ministry structure consists of:

Office of the Minister of Health
Office of the Deputy Minister of Health
Secretariat General
* Bureau of Planning and Budgeting
* Bureau of Finance and State Assets
* Bureau of Law
* Bureau of Organisation and Human Resources
* Bureau of Communication and Public Services
* Bureau of Goods and Services Procurement
* Bureau of General Affairs
Directorate General of Public Health
* Secretariat of Directorate General
* Directorate of Health Promotion and People Empowerment
* Directorate of Nutrition and Mother and Child Health
* Directorate of Productive and Elderly Health
* Directorate of Mental Health
* Directorate of Public Health Governance
* Indonesian Institute for Biomedics and Health Genomics
* Indonesian Institute for Health Biology
* Indonesian Institute for Environmental Health Laboratory
* Public Health Laboratories
** Indonesian Institute for Public Health Laboratories, Surabaya
** Indonesian Institute for Public Health Laboratories, Yogyakarta
** Indonesian Institute for Public Health Laboratories, Palembang
** Indonesian Institute for Public Health Laboratories, Jakarta
** Indonesian Institute for Public Health Laboratories, Banjarbaru
** Indonesian Institute for Public Health Laboratories, Makassar I
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Palembang
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Makassar II
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Batam
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Magelang
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Ambon
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Manado
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Donggala
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Medan
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Banjarnegara
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Banda Aceh
** Indonesian Center for Public Health Laboratories, Papua
** Indonesian Station for Public Health Laboratories, Pangandaran
** Indonesian Station for Public Health Laboratories, Baturaja
** Indonesian Station for Public Health Laboratories, Waikabubak
** Indonesian Station for Public Health Laboratories, Tanah Bumbu
Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control
* Secretariat of Directorate General
* Directorate of Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Control
* Directorate of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control
* Directorate of Immunization Management
* Directorate of Health Surveillance and Quarantine
* Directorate of Environmental Health
Directorate General of Health Service
* Secretariat of Directorate General
* Directorate of Referral Health Care
* Directorate of Primary Health Care
* Directorate of Health Care Governance
* Directorate of Health Care Facilities
* Directorate of Health Care Quality
Directorate General of Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices
* Secretariat of Directorate General
* Directorate of Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Resilience
* Directorate of Pharmaceutical Production and Distribution
* Directorate of Pharmaceutical Management and Service
* Directorate of Medical Device Production and Distribution
* Directorate of Medical Device Supervision
Directorate General of Health Workers
* Secretariat of Directorate General
* Directorate of Health Worker Planning
* Directorate of Health Worker Supply
* Directorate of Health Worker Utilization
* Directorate of Health Worker Quality Improvement
* Directorate of Health Worker Supervision and Guidance
Inspectorate General
Agency for Health Policies Development
* Secretariat
* Center of Health Provision Policy
* Center of Health System Resilience and Health Human Resource
* Center of Health Financing and Decentralisation
* Center of Global Health and Health Technology Policy
Special Advisor on Health Economics
Special Advisor on Health Technology
Special Advisor on Health Law
Special Advisor on Health Politics and Globalization
Center of Data and Information Technology
Center of Health System and Strategy
Center of Health Crisis
Center of Ministry Civil Service Competence Development

The ministry also coordinates two non-ministry government bodies, those are National Agency of Drug and Food Control and National Population and Family Planning Board.

Criticism

COVID-19

The minister of health, Terawan Agus Putranto, often published controversial statements about COVID-19. Terawan was also under fire for his "anti-science" and "arrogant" attitude in leading the COVID-19 crisis in Indonesia. Some epidemiologist conducted research to determine locations around the world that could have undetected cases of the virus imported from abroad. Terawan comments on the study, "In my opinion, the suspicion is too far-fetched. Let Harvard to come here. The door is open for them to see. There is nothing we keep secret." Terawan was criticized for stating that flu is more dangerous than COVID-19 because flu has a higher mortality rate. However, his initial response to the spread of COVID-19, such as the initial recommendation to not wear a mask, is quite aligned with other public health officials around the world including Anthony Fauci of the United States' NIH and general directions from the World Health Organization. In November 2023, the ministry announced the establishment of an academy in Bali aligned with GISAID, the initiative that led the global documentation of the COVID-19 virus sequences. The aim of GISAID Academy will be to focus on focus on bioinformatics education, advance pathogen genomic surveillance, and increased regional response capacity.