When I was on duty in a remote subdistrict of eastern Indonesia. A pregnant woman transported to primary health centre, she was loss of consciousness and seizure. It was an emergency situation. She suffered of eclampsia. The nearest hospital about 4-5 hours and access to get there is difficult. The land road was bad, ambulance could not operated. Her husband had to find boat for rent. Further problem, she came from poor family and no health insurance. It took time to find vehicle and gathered donation from the community member. She could not refer as soon as possible while her condition became worse over time.

This situation might be contrast if it happen in developed cities where hospitals and obstetrician available and easy to access. There is a dramatic gap in fulfillment of health access for community who live in rural, remote and border area compare to population in urban of Indonesia. As shown in the case above, undeveloped infrastructure to access tertiary health facilities bring health inequity for the community in remote area.

What is health inequity?

Health inequities are unjust differences in health status or in the distribution of health sources between different population group, arising from the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. These differences happen because of social stratification factors including socioeconomic, political and cultural. Since health inequity is unfair, The right formula of government policies must reduce it.