Government-run hospitals in Indonesia are required to buy locally-produced medical devices covering a broad range of product categories as part of a new government regulation that went into effect on June 18.
The new mandate, designed to promote domestic products, is open-ended and applies to 79 categories of devices including hospital beds, surgical gloves and protective gear, surgical instruments, and cardiac monitors. A wide range of devices that either cannot be produced in Indonesia or cannot be produced in sufficient volume to meet demand are exempt from the ban. Another set of devices needed to treat cases of COVID-19, which are on the rise in Indonesia, can also be imported, including emergency and continuous ventilators, oxygen generator systems of all kinds, oximeters, patient monitors, and infusion pumps.
It is unclear how long the prohibition against the purchase of foreign medical devices in the affected categories will remain in place.