The Role of Legal Protection for Medical Personnel in Ensuring Public Health

Abstract

Legal protection for medical personnel has become a strategic issue in strengthening health system governance and ensuring sustainable public health. Although previous studies have extensively discussed professional liability and the implementation of health regulations, limited attention has been given to the governance role of legal protection in connecting legal certainty with broader public health outcomes. This study aims to analyse the role of legal protection for medical personnel in ensuring public health through Indonesia's health law reform. The research employed a qualitative library research design using statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches. Primary legal materials consisted of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health, Government Regulation Number 28 of 2024, and Minister of Health Regulation Number 24 of 2022, while secondary materials were obtained from international policy documents and relevant scholarly literature. Data were collected through documentary research and analysed using content analysis and thematic analysis to identify the relationships between legal protection, institutional governance, and public health. The findings reveal that effective legal protection strengthens legal certainty, enhances professional confidence, promotes compliance with professional standards, reinforces institutional accountability, improves health workforce resilience, and ultimately contributes to healthcare quality, patient safety, public trust, and sustainable public health. The novelty of this research lies in the development of a governance model that conceptualises legal protection as an integrated mechanism linking health law reform, legal certainty, institutional governance, and sustainable public health. This model extends previous legal studies by demonstrating that legal protection functions not only as a safeguard for medical personnel but also as a strategic governance instrument for strengthening resilient healthcare systems and achieving long-term public health outcomes.