Why 1 million Indonesians flock to Malaysian hospitals annually

August 12, 2024

JAKARTA – While waiting for an appointment with an orthopedic doctor in a Penang hospital in Malaysia with my family last week, I read last year’s edition of The Jakarta Post, which quoted President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo complaining that around 2 million Indonesians make overseas medical trips every year, including 1 million to Malaysia and 750,000 to Singapore. This costs the country Rp 165 trillion (US$10.6 billion) in capital outflows.

The President said there were two main reasons for the outbound flow: there is a chronic shortage of medical specialists and the physical infrastructure for healthcare delivery is poor.

I don’t want to get into a debate with the President. Even the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) say the country’s doctors are just as good as foreign doctors in Malaysia or Singapore. That said, the reasons for going abroad for medical treatment should be more substantial than what the President and Indonesian doctors have said.

I went to Penang to accompany my son, who hadn’t improved at all after having pinched nerve surgery last month by a celebrity orthopedic surgeon at a private hospital in Jakarta. The surgeon told him he’d be back to normal in no time, but he was still in pain despite the surgery, which is something he never imagined before.

In 2010, I also took my wife to this island to replace a rod that had been implanted in her back by a devout Indonesian doctor nine years before. A CT scan here found that the rod had moved from its original position despite a lifetime guarantee from the Indonesian surgeon.

Malaysian orthopedic surgeon Oh Kim-Soon told my wife that the rod had moved from its original position, which was causing her severe pain. The second surgery in Penang