The Health Ministry (KKM) is proposing to the government that employers should give an additional one-day leave to their employees to undergo health screening.
According to Bernama, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the cooperation of public and private sector employers is important to ensure that their employees undergo health screening.
He then called on the Finance Ministry to look into drawing up a regulation for employers in this country to provide such leave to their workers.
“When a worker wants to have a medical check-up, usually once a year, hopefully the employers will give it.”
“Otherwise, they will have to take it from their allocated annual leave,” he said.
Khairy also urged employers to be considerate and take into account the situation faced by employees who might not have time to undergo health screening on a weekend.
“They are not able to do it during their working hours and they’ll be busy with their own family on weekends. In the end, they are unable to undergo health screening.”
“I’ve requested this under Budget 2023 as it will have an impact on the employers,” he added.
It was reported that Malaysians have a low level of awareness of having to undergo annual health screenings, with only 53% of Malaysians doing so.
Why is health screening important?
Health screening is important to everyone as it can detect disease early in people who do not show any signs and/or symptoms of illness or disease.
Early detection, followed by treatment and control of the condition can result in good outcome and lowers the risk of serious complications.
Certain chronic diseases such as diabetes take time to develop and if detected early can be better managed with fewer complications and improved long-term outcomes, while cancer starts small. By the time a patient feels pain, is bloated or has an obvious lump, cancer may already be at an advanced stage.
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