Health Ministry sets one-week goal for NTT’s quake-hit hospitals

Labuan Bajo — — Indonesia’s Health Ministry has set a maximum one-week target to restore basic operations at public hospitals damaged by the August earthquake in East Nusa Tenggara, focusing on trauma surgery, maternal and child health, and dialysis services according to official statements.

The ministry’s announcement on 16 August 2026 framed the one-week timeline as an operational goal for essential care, not a confirmation that all affected hospitals were already functioning normally, according to the ministry’s crisis health center and corroborating national media coverage.

Ministry figures compiled after the 15 August quake show that 21 hospitals in eight districts and cities were affected, with 16 still operating fully, four operating partially and one not operating at the time of reporting, according to official data.

Hospitals under pressure

Health officials said the recovery effort is concentrated on hospitals in Flores and nearby areas that sustained heavy damage, including facilities in Nagekeo and Manggarai districts.

According to the ministry’s health crisis center, Emergency Medical Teams with specialists in surgery, anesthesiology and emergency medicine were deployed to the worst-affected sites to keep trauma operations and other essential procedures running while structural repairs were assessed.

Data from the Health Ministry and national media reports indicate that two hospitals in Nagekeo suffered severe damage and temporarily stopped normal operations, with services shifting to tents and planned field facilities to maintain emergency care.

In Manggarai, hospital staff at RSUD Ruteng moved many patients and services into emergency tents outside the damaged main building while a field hospital was prepared at a nearby stadium, according to ministry statements and local news reports.

Health workers described extensive damage to wards and key units at Ruteng, including operating rooms and maternity services, forcing teams to perform procedures and monitor patients in temporary structures while awaiting reinforcement and construction of a dedicated field facility.

Figures released by the ministry’s health crisis center show the scale of disruption at primary care level: 190 community health centers were affected, of which 122 were fully operational, 49 were operating partially and 19 were closed.

Targets for primary care and referrals

Alongside the one-week hospital goal, the ministry set a longer, two-week target for damaged community health centers to resume at least basic services.

Officials said that antenatal care, childbirth services and immunization are priority functions for these health centers, because interruptions during displacement and damaged transport routes can quickly translate into higher risks for mothers and children.

The ministry’s crisis center reported that health emergency coordination posts were activated at national and local levels, with health-crisis management teams and Emergency Medical Teams dispatched to affected districts including Sikka and Ende to reinforce hospital and primary care services.

To support access in areas where roads and referral routes were disrupted, the ministry said mobile and field hospitals would be used to backstop damaged facilities and reduce the need for long transfers of severely ill patients.

Officials emphasized that even facilities without major structural damage could face constraints from shortages of staff, equipment, medicines or transport, meaning that full restoration of services would require more than repairing buildings.

What the one-week benchmark means

Health authorities presented the one-week deadline as a benchmark for minimum hospital functionality after the disaster, especially for services that cannot safely be deferred such as trauma surgery, emergency stabilization, maternity care, child health and dialysis.

The ministry and national media reports noted that this target refers to resuming basic operations, not to complete reconstruction of hospital buildings or the full restoration of all specialist and routine services to pre-quake levels.

Subsequent ministry updates on field hospital construction and ongoing specialist deployments in Nagekeo and Ruteng showed that recovery work was still underway at key referral facilities after the initial one-week period, indicating that the timeline was a guiding objective rather than a final status report.

For patients, the practical test of recovery is whether essential services can be obtained locally without relying solely on temporary tents or long-distance referrals, a standard that officials acknowledged would take longer than one week to achieve across all affected hospitals and health centers.

Context

The Health Ministry activated its health emergency coordination system after the magnitude 7.7 earthquake on 15 August 2026 damaged hospitals and primary care facilities across eight districts and cities in East Nusa Tenggara.

By 16 August, officials had documented impacts on 21 hospitals and 190 community health centers and announced the one-week hospital target and two-week health center target, alongside deployments of crisis-management teams, Emergency Medical Teams, and the establishment of field hospitals to sustain essential care during the recovery period.

Sources

• Indonesia Ministry of Health – Penanganan Cepat Gempa NTT, Kemenkes Kerahkan Tim Medis dan Pulihkan Layanan Kesehatan
• Tribunnews – Kemenkes Kejar Pemulihan Layanan 21 RS dan 190 Puskesmas Terdampak Gempa NTT
• IDN Times – Gempa NTT Rusak Puskesmas dan Rumah Sakit, Menkes Cek Lokasi
• BBC News Indonesia – Gempa NTT: Petugas medis berkejaran waktu selamatkan pasien