Indonesia: Improving teaching hospitals

The COVID-19 pandemic repeatedly pushed Indonesia's health system to the limits of its capacity. Doctors and hospital staff were overburdened in some cases, and the beds in the intensive care units were insufficient. KfW has been financing the expansion of the teaching hospital of Universitas Hasanuddin (Unhas) in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on behalf of the German Federal Government since 2017 and signed another contract at the end of December 2021 to finance the teaching hospital of Universitas Brawijaya (UB) in Malang, East Java. Together, the two projects will contribute to improved healthcare for around 48 million people. They will also be expanded with funds from an EU-funded COVID-19 assistance programme.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge social and economic impact in Indonesia. The health system has repeatedly been overloaded, especially in heavily populated Java and in the metropolis of Jakarta. The hospitals, especially the intensive care units, could not cope with the number of sick people. The laboratories are overburdened with the evaluation of tests.

KfW is supporting the country's efforts to contain the pandemic. The first of these loans, which was already concluded in 2017, is to support the Hasanuddin University Teaching Hospital in Makassar, whose intensive care capacities are being considerably expanded. The second, signed recently, is intended to support the teaching hospital of Brawijaya University in Malang. Here, in addition to the completion of the building, the aim is to equip a research and training centre with modern equipment to ensure up-to-date training.

The EU's COVID-19 funding will now be used to extend both grants by five million euros each, which will be used specifically to combat the pandemic in the two teaching hospitals. The goal is to adequately treat more critically ill patients in intensive care units and to test more people for COVID-19.

The EU programme is financing two biosafety laboratories for virological diagnostics, which are designed, among other things, to detect the COVID-19 viruses. KfW is financing the equipment of the intensive care units and the laboratories with medical devices and consumables.