By Olivia Miwil - April 18, 2022 @ 4:15pm
KOTA KINABALU: ProtectHealth will reach out to more eligible 'Skim Peduli Kesihatan' (PeKa B40) recipients, especially in the rural areas of Sabah, to encourage them to utilise the government healthcare initiative.
ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Dr Anas Alam Faizli, speaking in a press conference, said out of 477,929 eligible beneficiaries in Sabah, only 43,866 have undergone medical screening.
The Health Ministry's free PeKa B40 package, which is being carried out by ProtectHealth, is meant for recipients of the 'Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat' scheme and their registered spouses aged 40 and above.
Its benefits include comprehensive health screening including breast and prostate for those at risk, health aids worth up to RM20,000 for certain medical equipment, cancer treatment and transport incentives.
Anas cited the availability of clinics in rural areas, busy working schedules and fear of coming to health facilities due to Covid-19 infection as being among the reasons for the low uptake of PeKa B40.
"Most of the private clinics that offer Peka B40 benefits are in urban areas, while remote areas would be covered by government health clinics.
"Therefore, we will have our general practitioners (GP) do outreach programmes for the community," he said, adding that the initiative is also meant to provide more alternative healthcare facilities and to share the workload with the government.
To date, there are 169 GPs, 101 government clinics, 24 government hospitals and 22 pathology labs offering the healthcare packages.
Anas said the low-income group communities, especially daily wagers, are not keen on coming for screening as they could not afford to lose their incomes by taking a day off.
However, he noted that 40 per cent of those in Sabah screened under the package were found to have at least one non-communicable disease, either hyperlipidemia, diabetic, hypertension and anxiety or depression.
"In 2019, there were 45,000 new diabetic cases detected. Those cases can be prevented from advancing to renal failure provided they get early treatment.
"Even during pandemic, the serious Covid-19 cases involved those with existing medical conditions.
"We will continue to promote this free health screening package for more people."
For more information, visit www.protecthealth.com.my
Comments
Post a Comment