KUCHING, June 18 — The recently launched Madani Medical Scheme (SPM) is set to benefit 53,287 households who are also Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) recipients in Kuching alone, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.He said currently, there are 11 approved private general practitioner (GP) clinics in Kuching that are offering these services, while seven applications are in the process and more are expected to join during the implementation of this initiative.
“For each STR recipient, the government allocates RM250 for each household, RM125 for senior citizens (without their partner) and RM75 for singles.
“The STR recipients can obtain as many free treatments as they want until the allocation for each household is finished. This is first a pilot project and once successfully implemented, the government may look to expand its coverage as well.
“This will benefit all STR recipients and they will be registered into this initiative automatically and all they need is to bring their IC to a registered GP clinic,” he said in a statement today.
As such, he said any private GPs are welcomed to register with ProtectHealth Corp. to provide such services to the people.
STR recipients can also check the list of these clinics at https://kelayakan-spm.protecthealth.com.my/find-clinics, he added.
Having welcomed the initiative by Ministry of Health, Dr Yii who is also the Ministry’s special advisor, encourages all eligible recipient to make full use of this initiative which provides free treatment for low-income families (B40) from private GP clinics.
He said the initiative was launched by the ministry last Thursday, with an initial overall sum of RM100 million which will benefit an estimated 700,000 B40 households throughout Malaysia and Kuching is selected as one of the first locations among 10 other districts throughout Malaysia for initiative to be implemented.
“One of the aims of this initiative is to make it more convenient for the B40 community to receive additional free treatment at partner private clinics without need to go the government hospitals or clinics when they are sick thus also hopefully helping in reducing the congestion these government facilities.
“This also help strengthen the cooperation between the public and private healthcare to provide basic healthcare services for the people while helping the local economy as well.
“That is why I encourage all STR recipient to make full use of this initiative on top of existing healthcare benefits such as PeKaB40 that provides free health screening for those eligible recipients,” he added. — Borneo Post
