Less than 20 per cent take up Socso HSP offer

SEPANG, March 14 (Bernama) – Social Security Organisation (Socso) chief executive, Datuk Seri Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed, said that only 545,812 of a total 3.4 million contributors have gone for the free health screening offered under the Health Screening Programme (HSP) which was introduced in 2013.

“Those over age 40 are eligible for it, but we’ve found that 69 per cent (of employees) have never gone for a health screening.

"At the same time, an analysis of those who’ve been checked show that 73 per cent have a weight problem, 9 per cent diabetes, 27 per cent high blood pressure and 62 per cent high cholesterol," he said after the launch of the Voucherless HSP with Brahim's SATS Food Services Sdn Bhd today.

Present at the launch was Brahim's SATS Food Services Sdn Bhd chief executive officer, Lim Sau Siong.

He said the voucherless system, which has been available since September 2018, was born out of concern for workers’ health.

He said with this method, contributors don’t have to wait to be handed vouchers by their employers or Socso, and they can go for a health screening when convenient.

"This method utilises the short messaging service (SMS) to furnish HSP voucher numbers. Till February, 20,252 SMSes have been sent out," he said.

This year, 319,886 HSP vouchers will be distributed to Socso members.

-- BERNAMA