PETALING JAYA: About 40,000 workers have undergone free Health Screening Programme (HSP) medical check-ups provided by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) so far, its chief executive officer Datuk K. Selvarajah said.
He added that there was an increase in requests to redeem the vouchers from workers following the announcement that eligible workers would be given vouchers by Socso through their employers starting from this month.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam had earlier announced that the free health screening initiative for some two million private sector employees will kick off on Jan 1.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced in Budget 2013 that RM200mil would be allocated for Socso contributors to get free medical check-ups.
Selvarajah said there were a few teething problems when the scheme was launched but they were successfully resolved.
“Several private clinics were unable to register with Socso to conduct the free medical check-ups due to problems in the IT system. However, we are now using a new computer server and this problem has been rectified,” he told The Star.
Selvarajah said that so far some 3,000 private clinics had registered.
“This number is marginally sufficient but we hope more clinics will come forward to register so that more people will have access to the service.
“All the vouchers have been issued to employers and it is now up to them to distribute them to their staff,” he added.
Selvarajah said Socso would consider making it an annual initiative if funds were available to them.
The HSP will screen non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, as these illnesses were found to be factors affecting the productivity of Malaysian workers.
There are two types of vouchers for eligible workers the first is for a standard screening, comprising a physical examination, consultation, blood test, urine test and Pap smear (for women) and the second voucher is solely for mammogram screening.
The deadline to redeem the vouchers is Dec 31. Clinics interested to register with Socso to conduct the screenings can do so by logging on to sehat.perkeso.gov.my.
The list of clinics registered with Socso can be found atsehat.perkeso.gov.my/14-articles/78-about-hsp.
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