YESTERDAY, Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan stated that the subsidised testing by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) for all 1.7 million foreign workers in Malaysia via the Prihatin Screening Programme (PSP) is only valid if screening is done in panel clinics, of which the list and details have yet to be released.
Considering that it is a gargantuan task to screen 1.7 million workers – and in the interest of time – state assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran today called on the Government to allow all clinics approved by the Health Ministry to conduct swab tests “to equally qualify for the subsidy”.
To re-cap, even Saravanan has acknowledged that the first phase alone which comprises 888,342 individuals in the Federal Territories, Labuan, Penang, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Sabah is expected to take about four to six weeks to complete.
“How is this a good plan when our numbers are rising on a daily basis and we need to act faster and in a bigger scale?” asked Rajiv in a media statement. “After all, isn’t the objective to get the foreign workers tested as fast as possible, rather than to give a windfall profit to certain panel clinics?”
Just a few days earlier, Rajiv had demonstrated how the COVID-19 tests can be done for RM70 instead of the RM150-RM180 that many of these panel clinics are charging. (Click here for story)
According to Rajiv, the panel clinics involved have been pre-selected and there are no openings for other clinics to participate even if they are open to the terms set by Socso for the pre-selected clinics.
“There have not been any calls for clinics to participate as a panel clinic, nor any forms or applications to fill should they be interested to do so,” revealed Rajiv.
“This should not be the case when we should be adopting the ‘whole-of-society’ approach to beat COVID-19. As it is, private clinics are under-utilised and having more clinics operate in this scheme will save a lot of time for everyone involved.”
In this regard, Rajiv called on Saravanan who is the minister in-charge of Socso to immediately instruct the opening up of the subsidy scheme to all of the Health Ministry’s swab-certified clinics.
“I’m calling for equality and a better response when dealing with foreign workers, in the aspect of allowing testing to be done more openly by certified medical professionals,” he pointed out.
“We must all work together to successfully overcome this pandemic, and not worsen the situation. As we all are in this together, kita jaga kita (we care for each other).” – Nov 26, 2020
