Ministry Holds Stricter Hajj Health Personnel Recruitment

Debriefing of Indonesian Hajj Health Personnel in Jakarta. (Photo by : Ministry of Health)

The Government continues to improve quality of services for Hajj pilgrimage every year, including in health aspect.

To that end, Ministry of Health is determined to always provide the best health services for every Hajj pilgrims, one of which is by carrying out a stricter recruitment process for Hajj health personnel in a form of an integrated health test.

The statements were made by the Head of the Hajj Health Center Eka Jusup Singka during a debriefing to 244 doctors, candidates for Indonesian Hajj Health Personnel (TKHI) in a three-day forum (24-26 January 2019) in Jakarta. The forum is also a part of the recruitment process of the TKHI candidates in which the final number will be stipulated after coordination with Ministry of Religious Affairs.

At the forum, the candidates were not only trained about the health services in the 2018 Hajj, but also took several health tests as parts of Hajj health personnel recruitment, among others the Narcotics, Psychotropic, and other Addictive Substances (NAPZA) test, fitness test, psychological test (MMPI method), and an interview.

The integrated test has only been implemented in the recruitment process of the 2019 Hajj health personnel. With these several tests, Ministry of Health wants to ensure that the Hajj health personnel selected to work in Saudi Arabia are the best candidates.

Nurhadi, one of the participants of the forum, from Purwakarta, West Java, gave a positive response to this event. According to him, all participants enthusiastically followed the recruitment process and health workers who would be dispatched to Mecca also can take the benefits from this forum.

“There was no workshop and tests like this before. The workshop is not only aimed at synergizing the vision in providing health services to the pilgrims but also at producing qualified personnel,” said Nurhadi, who served as a TKHI for Hajj 2012.

In the meantime, Eka Jusup Singka went on to explain the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of TKHI in Saudi Arabia. “Hajj health personnel must do their best. They must uphold SHAR’I principles, namely, active (Sigap), reliable (Handal), trustworthy (Amanah), responsive (Responsif), and initiative (Inisiatif),” Eka explained.

He also motivated doctors participating in the event to always preserve spirit of group (esprit de corps). Maintaining the good name of ministries and the country is also the responsibility of the entire Hajj health providers, he said.

“The TKHI is the chosen ones who exercise development, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative functions to the pilgrims,” Eka firmly said.

For the record, Ministry of Health also held a similar event for doctors from the eastern part of Indonesia in Surabaya on 22-24 January 2019. (BKPM Kemenkes/EN)

Translated by : Rany Anjany Subachrum
Edited by : M. Ersan Pamungkas