40,000 have undergone free medical check-ups

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.