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Protests after health ministry names fake vaccine hospitals
Jakarta Globe - July 17, 2016
A series of protests against the hospitals was prompted after Health Minister Nila M. Moeloek revealed the names of 14 health facilities that have allegedly been using fake vaccines during a hearing at the House of Representatives on Thursday (14/07).
Patients of St. Elisabeth hospital in Bekasi, West Java, were involved in a tense mediation with the hospital's management on Saturday afternoon, Antara news agency reported. The meeting escalated after Antonius Yudiyanto, director of the hospital, brought in two lawyers to face angry patients rather than respond directly.
"We just want the management to tell us – what kind of fake vaccines you injected into our child. If you didn't use fake vaccines, bring your evidence to this meeting," said Ketut Daryatmo, a 37-year-old father whose child was a patient at the hospital.
Bekasi military command and hospital security officers were called into the meeting after discussions grew increasingly heated. Dozens of journalists were expelled by the management who said it was a closed meeting.
East Jakarta's Harapan Bunda hospital took a different approach, opening an official crisis center on Sunday to record and monitor patients who are believed to have been injected with the counterfeit vaccines.
Nunung Rohayati, spokeswoman at Harapan Bunda Hospital, said as of Sunday at 11.30 a.m management has recorded 126 patients who claimed to have had injection at the hospital.
Management will arrange to revaccinate children for free after all records have been verified, she said. The move will be in line with the government launched task force in response to the public health crisis. The hospital also opened a hotline at 021-8400257 ext. 330 for illegal vaccines complaints.
Herlin Ika, the secretary of Harapan Bunda Fake Vaccines Victim Alliance, criticized the hospital's improper treatment of the victims by locating the crisis center in the parking area behind the hospital building.
The alliance previously requested the crisis center to be placed in the hospital's ballroom for the sake of patients' convenience. "As you see, the ballroom is locked. The victims were treated poorly by the hospital," Herlin complained.
Among 14 hospitals in fake vaccines ring, 13 of them were located in Bekasi and bought their fake vaccines from Juanda, an employee of CV Azka Medika. Harapan Bunda Hospital in East Jakarta obtained the fake vaccines from a man identified as M. Syahrul.
According to the Health ministry's investigation, both men had "given a list of the vaccines and their prices to the procurement units at the hospitals. The orders were later agreed to by the hospital directors."
Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/protests-health-ministry-names-fake-vaccine-hospitals/.
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