Coordinator of the Legal Aid Institute for Health, Iskandar Sitorus, said the police needed help to find expert witnesses for investigations.
He said the police were currently handling about 90 medical malpractice and negligence cases, with none having yet reached the courts.
Iskandar said the police relied heavily on expert witnesses from the Indonesian Doctors Association, who, according to him, often testified in favor of doctors and hospitals.
Thursday's discussion involved the doctors association, the Indonesian Nurses Association, the Health Ministry, the Indonesian Society of Pediatricians and the National Commission on Researching and Preventing Post-Immunization Incidents.
One of the main topics of the meeting was the case of 10-year-old Sinta Bella, who became paralyzed after receiving a tetanus shot at her elementary school in Bekasi two years ago.
Iskandar said the police would focus their investigation on the procedural standards of the vaccine used in Sinta's case, and the proficiency of the nurse who administered the shot.
"It is also unknown whether the bone tuberculosis Sinta suffers from played a role in her paralysis," he said.
Sinta received a tetanus shot in November 2005. A few days later, she began to experience trouble walking.
In May 2006, Sinta's parents informed her school their daughter was unable to walk after receiving the shot.
School officials brought her to a hospital in Bekasi, which told them to take the girl to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta.
At the Jakarta hospital, Sinta was diagnosed with paralysis.
Sinta was transferred to National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, where she was diagnosed with bone tuberculosis.
An official with the commission on post-immunization incidents, Julitasari, said the tetanus show was not the cause of Sinta's paralysis.
She said 205 million children were immunized between 1998 and 2005 and there was not one confirmed case of paralysis as a result of immunization.
She added, however, that officials had decided to set up a team to investigate Sinta's case.
The team will comprise representatives of the Legal Aid Institute for Health, the Indonesian Society of Pediatricians, the Indonesian Nurses Association and the Health Ministry.
Sinta is now able to stand, although with the help of a cane.
Her mother, Nani, said Sinta was receiving "alternative treatment".
Sinta, who now live in Cikeas, Bogor, said she hoped to be able to walk again and return to school.
At the beginning of this year dozens of family members of victims of medical malpractice and negligence rallied at city police headquarters to call attention to what they called the slow pace of police investigations into their cases. (08)
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