Paper for the Workshop on ‘Disaster Management for the Health Sector in Indonesia’,
Bali Padma Hotel, Kuta, 11-13 Juni 2003

VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE AT SANGLAH HOSPITAL
AFTER THE KUTA BLAST (12-10-2002)

10. Family support and medical follow-up

    It is usual for Indonesian families to stay at the hospital to remain close to their sick relative, leaving work/income generating activities for the time being and setting themselves up at the open terraces next to the wards. This is comforting for the patients, who sometimes also depend for part of their care on these relatives. So for various reasons the lenient policy of most hospitals including Sanglah to allow family continuously on the hospital's premisses is functional. However, the facilities to stay at the hospital for families are 'basic', to put it mildly.¹⁶

    Several community organisations have supported the Indonesian families who lost a relative in the blast as well as families who had a severely injured member in the care of Sanglah hospital for weeks. The families who attended a relative (most of them had burns) were given financial support or support in kind on a daily basis (boxes with daily needs tea, coffee, milk, sugar, mie, soap) while staying at the hospital, as well as counselling and spiritual comfort for approximately a month after the blast.¹⁷

    By mid november the last bomb victims treated at Sanglah were released. Although the injured Indonesian bomb victims did not need constant medical care anymore, most of them still needed medical supervision and treatment of their burns (including 2^nd skin provided later) and hearing problems, and some also needed rehabilitation in the form of physiotherapy. At the point the patients were released from hospital it was not clear to which extent this aftercare was still considered as the responsibility of the hospital and perhaps because of that community organizations stepped in and took over this responsibility. The organizations involved could do so¹⁸, as donated funds were available, and a number of medical professionals outside Sanglah could devote their time to the aftercare of the injured bomb victims. What was lacking was a concerted effort to discuss the needs of the patients together (doctors from Sanglah with the community organizations). This caused some uneasiness on both sides.

    Recommendations: Provide adequate lodging and family support for relatives staying with victims at the hospital. Invite community organizations (if possible medical specialists) to discuss victims needs, medical or other otherwise, before their release from hospital. Determine together which treatment can still be given at the hospital or needs to be done somewhere else and how to cover the costs involved.

    
    

    16 I take the liberty to remark that providing very cheap lodging on the hospital’s premisses might serve the Balinese community very well. Many come from far. 17 Some voiced the criticism that families who stayed with a sick relative who was NOT a bomb victim, did not receive such attention. 18 Bali Hati Foundation even established a team of doctors with a nurse and physiotherapist for medical follow-up service.

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