One million recipients of Peka B40 scheme underwent health screening for NCDs
PUTRAJAYA - One million recipients of the Skim Peduli Kesihatan for the B40 group (Peka B40) have undergone screening for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) since its launch in April 2019 until last July 6, said Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
She said one million individuals from the B40 underwent free health screenings for early detection of NCDs and their risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels in the blood, obesity, depression, anxiety and cancer.
"Around 400,000 or 40 percent of them now know about this silent disease and they have been referred for further treatment to prevent them from experiencing serious complications," she said in a statement today.
The Peka 40 scheme offers four benefits to recipients. The first is the free health screening at private clinics registered for Peka B40 and MOH health clinics; the second benefit is health assistance, involving 10 categories of free medical equipment costing not more than RM20,000 such as cardiac stents, intra-ocular lenses, and artificial joint implants, throughout their lifetime.
The third benefit is the Cancer Treatment Completion Incentive (CTCI) which offers financial incentives to motivate low-income cancer patients to complete their cancer treatment. The incentives are disbursed in two separate payments, with a maximum of RM1,000 per cancer diagnosis.
The fourth benefit is the Transport Incentive of up to RM500 (peninsular Malaysia) and RM1,000 (Sabah and Sarawak) yearly, for every disease they are diagnosed with.
Dr Zaliha said that until today, more than 50,000 recipients of Peka B40 had benefited in terms of health assistance, involving equipment worth RM110,000,000, while 7,000 recipients benefitted from the CTCI programme, while 2,000 others received the Transport Incentives.
"The Ministry of Health (MOH) is grateful to the 3,100 private medical clinics, 990 health clinics, 170 private laboratories, and 140 hospitals under the ministry for their continued support of these programmes for the B40 group.,” she said.
The PeKa B40 is a government initiative aimed at meeting the health needs of low-income groups, especially the B40 group, which focuses on non-communicable diseases. - Bernama
