JAKARTA, INDONESIA - Media OutReach^[1] - 14 September 2021 - Indonesia, the world's fourth most population-dense nation, has recorded more than 3.5 million cases of Covid-19 as of September 2021 and has become the global epicentre of the pandemic. With limited testing and tracing capabilities in Indonesia as well as no government funded testing system in place, the real number of Covid-19 cases are without a doubt far higher than what has been recorded. To substantiate this, close to 30% of all Covid-19 tests done throughout Indonesia have tested positive, painting a very dire and serious picture.

The chaos introduced by Covid-19 has left the already-strained hospitals overwhelmed and understaffed, while its pharmacies struggle to cope with the rising demand for medication and healthcare. Prior to Covid-19, Indonesia's fragile healthcare system failed to match the standards of its neighbouring countries. The World Bank highlighted the mere 1.2 hospital beds per 1,000 patients, almost two-thirds of Malaysia's 1.9 and half of Singapore's 2.4 beds respectively.

As such, the Indonesian government's health budget for 2021 has doubled since January, now standing at a whopping USD 1.34 billion. Such efforts are aimed to target the insufficient hospital resources and depleting medical supplies while strengthening the fragile medical supply chains within Indonesia.

Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated Indonesia's desperate need for innovative solutions as its current inefficiencies and inadequacies in the healthcare system are becoming more and more exposed. Indonesia now has no choice but to pivot to a digitalized way of working in order to manage the spread of Covid-19 and deliver a higher quality of healthcare to the people of Indonesia. In a country that has only 0.4 doctors per 1,000 people, and a population of almost 300 million spread over 6,000 inhabited islands, digital healthcare services are a necessary and crucial solution to making healthcare accessible to everyone and as a tool for healthcare facilities to manage their ever-growing pressure on their facilities and people. The pandemic has highlighted the value of digital healthcare solutions that can be brought to patients – shortening waiting times, tackling overcrowding in waiting rooms and minimising trips to the hospital. This in turn would speed up the efficiency of processes in hospitals.

Zi.Care is strategically and uniquely positioned to effectively strengthen the foundations of Indonesia's public healthcare system. Their adoption of Cloud-based Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Electronic Health Records (EHR) aims to digitalize all hospital information systems and present an opportunity to revolutionise the way hospitals store data, operate, manage, and deliver treatments to patients. Additionally, Zi.Care's development of patient applications and health passports likely hints at the success of Indonesia's future medical system.

Providing Indonesian citizens with access to medical services and health data through a mere screen at their fingertips, Zi.Care is poised perfectly to change Indonesia's quality and service of healthcare for the better. Zi.Care could thus well and truly be the catalyst for change to Indonesia's stubborn and struggling medical system. Catapulting Indonesia from where it is to where it should be across a global stage.

References

1. ^{^} Media OutReach (www.media-outreach.com)