Mayor Surabaya Risma bows down in front of doctors, what is Soetomo Hospital response?

Last updated on May 6th, 2021 at 09:19 am

The problem of the relationship between Surabaya Mayor Tri “Risma” Rismaharini and Dr. Soetomo Regional Public Hospital is still being discussed, and getting netizens’ attention on social media.

Risma stated that the Surabaya City Government did not have access to communicate with Dr. Soetomo Regional Hospital which was under the authority of the East Java Provincial Government.

Monday afternoon, June 29, Surabaya got large attention due to the bow down by Risma twice in front of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) and the Indonesia Hospital Association (Persi) of East Java related to the handling of COVID-19 at Surabaya City Hall.

Responding to this, the Director of Dr. Soetomo Hospital Surabaya Dr. Joni Wahyuhadi said that so far the relationship between RSUD Dr. Soetomo and the City Government of Surabaya was fine, especially in the context of coordinating the handling of COVID-19.

“Dr. Soetomo Regional Hospital has always received Surabaya City Government well and with open arms. Previously, coordination was also carried out in the meeting room of Dr. Soetomo Hospital, especially related to COVID-19 and tracing issues,” he said at the Grahadi State Building in Surabaya, Monday night, June 29.

Joni said that every afternoon Dr. Soetomo Hospital always communicates with the Surabaya City Health Office and 37 other areas related to COVID-19 data dissemination to verify the data submitted by the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

The incident started with one of the doctors at RSUD Dr. Soetomo who complained that many hospitals were full and many Surabaya residents did not obey the health protocol.

On the other hand, Mayor Risma also explained that she had tried to establish communication with Dr. Soetomo Hospital. However, there was a problem with personal protective equipment (PPE), which the municipal government wanted to send PPE assistance but the hospital refused it.

Clarification from Dr. Joni, that his party was not rejecting PPE assistance from the Surabaya City Government, but the PPE at Dr. Soetomo Hospital still existed or was sufficiently available. So the PPE from Surabaya City Government is better used for other hospitals that are still in need.

“Later, if we accepted, we will be called greedy. We don’t want much, because storing too much in the warehouse is also not good and risky. There are those who want to donate money, we don’t accept it, because it is not allowed,” he said.

Personally, Joni respects Tri Rismaharini as mayor, moreover, he also identifies as a citizen of Surabaya.