Introduction
The newly launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations Member States put much emphasis on universal health coverage at all levels of health care delivery (1). However, ensuring that health services are accessible to the geographically hard to reach groups remain a critical challenge for most countries. Health services in most UN member states have to contend with extensively large geographical distances, impassable roads as well as completely isolated islands from the mainstream country and important cities (2).
This essay will discuss on Indonesia, an archipelago with over 17,000 islands (3) in the South East Asia. Indonesia has been selected because of the huge number of geographically isolated islands and the competing goal for the country to achieve universal health coverage (4). According to the 2012 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the country had a projected population of about 257 million by 2015 (4), ranking it the fourth most populated country after China, India and the United States of America, with over 90% of which being reported to reside in the islands (5). The country is predominantly mountainous with coastal lowlands and several rivers provide the only feasible means of access to some islands (4). Apart from lack of human resources for health, the country suffers from long distances, frequent volcanic …show more content…
These strategies include constructing rural health facilities, conducting outreach or mobile clinics, recruiting and training community health workers or Community Health Aides/Practitioners (CHA/P), task shifting of clinical functions to trained low cadre staff, medical camps, health staff rotation and other technological innovations such as telemedicine and use of mobile
The newly launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations Member States put much emphasis on universal health coverage at all levels of health care delivery (1). However, ensuring that health services are accessible to the geographically hard to reach groups remain a critical challenge for most countries. Health services in most UN member states have to contend with extensively large geographical distances, impassable roads as well as completely isolated islands from the mainstream country and important cities (2).
This essay will discuss on Indonesia, an archipelago with over 17,000 islands (3) in the South East Asia. Indonesia has been selected because of the huge number of geographically isolated islands and the competing goal for the country to achieve universal health coverage (4). According to the 2012 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the country had a projected population of about 257 million by 2015 (4), ranking it the fourth most populated country after China, India and the United States of America, with over 90% of which being reported to reside in the islands (5). The country is predominantly mountainous with coastal lowlands and several rivers provide the only feasible means of access to some islands (4). Apart from lack of human resources for health, the country suffers from long distances, frequent volcanic …show more content…
These strategies include constructing rural health facilities, conducting outreach or mobile clinics, recruiting and training community health workers or Community Health Aides/Practitioners (CHA/P), task shifting of clinical functions to trained low cadre staff, medical camps, health staff rotation and other technological innovations such as telemedicine and use of mobile