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The country needs more inter­nationally accredited hospitals to stem the flow of patients to such countries as Singapore and Malaysia, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday.

“We need to boost the capacity of the country’s health care providers,” he said at a National Health Development seminar in Jakarta hosted by the University of Indonesia’s School of Medicine. “Having already built clinics and community health care centers [Puskesmas], we now need to focus on building modern hospitals with international standards — world-class hospitals.”

Yudhoyono said it was worrying that many middle- and high-income Indonesians chose to go elsewhere in Southeast Asia for treatment.

Singapore and Thailand have long been acknowledged as medical-tourism hubs, while Malaysia, with a booming health sector, offers packages at very competitive prices.

Public figures also tend to head overseas for cutting-edge care, including former first lady Ainun Habibie, who has been hospitalized in Germany for abdominal tumors.

Yudhoyono said such trips were not necessary, as several Indo­nesian doctors were world-renowned experts in their fields.

“I always get my check-ups at local hospitals,” he said. “I’d like to think our health care providers are at the stage where I won’t ever need to be referred to an overseas hospital for treatment. What would it say about local health facilities if I had to be treated overseas?

“We need more modern hospitals with advanced technology and the best medical staff on hand to cater to our 200 million-plus people.”

The president also said more hospitals were needed in rural areas, possibly subsidized, to counter the current concentration of top hospitals in cities.

The government’s renewed focus on health care will see the issue bumped up to second place on its list of priorities, after education.

Health Minister Endang Ra­hayu Sedyaningsih, speaking at the same event, said the 2011 health budget would be increased to 5 percent of GDP.

Yudhoyono stressed that health care was a key part of the national development agenda.

“We’ve agreed on people-centric development,” he said. “People should have access to basic capital such as education and health care, which will open up more opportunities to them for work and eventually better lives.”

Besides building more international-standard hospitals, the government’s health development plan will include improving the quality of care of residents, raising the standards of medical workers, and establishing international cooperation on health issues, as part of a wider plan to attain the UN Millennium Development Goals on health.

Yuna Farhan of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), however, said the planned budget increase would not be enough to improve health care significantly.

“The [health] budget from 2005 to 2010 is about 2 percent [of GDP],” he said. The budget for 2010 is about Rp 22 trillion ($2.4 billion).

“The government is far from reaching the MDGs target on health,” he said. “Five percent is insufficient.”

This year, according to Fitra data, the government also eliminated subsidies for generic medicines, the most accessible medicine for poor people. Yuna said the cash aid for Puskesmas did not address the main need in improving people’s health.

“The government gives Rp 100 million to each Puskesmas without even analyzing their needs,” he said. “No good criteria have been set up for the aid.”

He said the government should realize that with high rates of maternal and child deaths, as well as poor nutrition, it should allocate more than just 5 percent in the 2011 health budget.