JAKARTA: The Health Ministry said that filming a soap opera in an
intensive care unit (ICU) room was not a problem, although a regulation
would be drafted in response to a recent incident.
“There has to
be clear regulation stipulating the rules,” director for health
development, Chairul Radjab Nasution, told reporters on Friday.
Chairul
was responding to a complaint by the father of Ayu Tria Desiani, a
leukemia patient who died at Harapan Kita Maternity and Children’s
Hospital in West Jakarta on Thursday morning, about a soap opera being
filmed in the room.
Ayu’s father, Kurnianto Ahmad Syaifur, 47,
said that shooting for the TV series Love in Paris went on all night,
with the film crew and actors walking around without special clothes
designed for the sterile environment.
Chairul said that ICU rooms
were categorized as “sub-sterile” and visitors were only required to
wash their hands and wear a mask.
He added that the filming
should not have disturbed patients as the location was vacant. The
hospital’s president director, Achmad Soebagjo Tancarino, said that the
management accepted the filming request in the ICU room for promotional
purposes. “We have done this several times,” he said.