REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DENPASAR -- Indonesia still lacked of plastic surgery specialists. Vice Chairman of Association of Indonesia Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Aesthetic Specialists (Perapi), Irena Sakura Rini, said graduates of this expertise were on average only three to five people per year.
"This country needs more plastic surgeons because there are 250 million people out there with a variety of health risks, especially burns, cleft lip, and slit in oral cavity," said Irena, in Denpasar, Wednesday (9/9).
The amount of plastic surgeons in Indonesia currently were only 163 people. They were generally still concentrated in large cities, such as Jakarta and Surabaya.
Irena hoped the government can support the addition of Perapi training centers in several regions in Indonesia. This could open up the opportunity for general practitioners who are interested in studying a specialty of plastic surgery to help patients in certain regions.
Perapi still continued to expand information to Indonesian people, for example, related to the treatment of burns. Plastic surgeon and aesthetic reconstruction is very closely related to burns.
Increasing number of plastic surgery specialists has to be significant. Moreover, this year Indonesia will implement the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). If number of plastic surgery specialists is insufficient, medical experts from neighboring countries will see a big opportunity in Indonesia, so that the local doctor will not able to compete in terms of quantity.
Chairman of the Association of Burn and Wound Healing Indonesia, I Nyoman Putu Riasa, said the spread of plastic surgeons in Indonesia was still not evenly distributed. She considered a plastic surgeon can serve three million inhabitants.
"The problem is they are still concentrated in large cities, not in remote areas," said Riasa.
Riasa exemplified, none of plastic surgery specialists in Central Sulawesi. Perapi then encouraged general practitioners to broaden their interest by taking plastic surgical specialties.
They just have to join a number of training, school, discipline curriculum, and get practice recommendation from Perapi. The graduates will be able to evenly fill any regions in Indonesia, especially the eastern parts, such as Lombok and Papua.
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