Trash-for-healthcare: Indonesian doctor accepts discarded plastic bottles in return for treatment

From the beginning, Dr Nugraha was determined to treat any patient that came to him, regardless of their financial situation.

“I thought to myself: ‘I want to help others but don’t want people to be dependent (on donations). I want to change this mentality. I want the patients to also make their contribution, not to me but to their community’,” he said.

And so the trash-for-healthcare programme was born, a year after running his own private practice.

PLANS FOR EXPANSION IN THE PIPELINE 

Dr Nugraha uses profits from treating his regular patients to subsidise less fortunate ones, an operating model he still keeps to this day.

He said there were times when he operated at a loss and had to use his personal savings to buy medicines, pay staff members’ salary as well as other operational expenses. But Dr Nugraha was undeterred despite those around him expressing skepticism that his venture would work and urging him to stop.

“Thankfully, over time we are no longer operating at a loss,” he said.

The programme puts Dr Nugraha’s clinic on the map, earning the doctor and Harapan Sehat numerous accolades and praises from the local press and government officials.

Through word of mouth, regular paying patients began flocking to the clinic, generating profit for the business and allowing Dr Nugraha to treat more impoverished patients.

Eventually, Dr Nugraha was able to buy his mother another house in a different part of the city while his former home was turned into a clinic.