DENPASAR ~ Data released last week by Indonesian health and nutrition authorities showed Bali still lacking in healthcare resources, an official said.

According to Bali Department of Health officials, the island is most in need of skilled laboratory staff, whose role is to increase preventative and curative healthcare and back up doctors’ diagnoses.

The data showed Bali had only 149 laboratory analysts in 2008 to serve 489 community health centres and 12 government hospitals as well as dozens of private healthcare facilities.

To increase human resources in the medical field, the central government has announced the program Indonesia Sehat (Healthy Indonesia) 2010, which aims in part at getting 1.1 million people qualified to work in laboratories.

In Bali, Stikes University officials said they would be promoting their Wira Medika program, in which students can qualify as a lab technician.

Graduates of the course would have the capacity to use technology to carry out analysis in the fields of haematology, microbiology, urinalis, clinical chemistry, imuno-serology and parasitology as well as many other fields.