KUCHING, May 12: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii urges the Sarawak government to relax the requirements of healthcare workers to allow more to be eligible for the Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) special incentive.
He said the federal government recently dropped the ’15 days requirements’ as this rigid condition cause many deserving Healthcare Workers to be left out and not qualify for such incentive.
“While I welcome the State Governments initiative of RM 300 monthly for six months special incentive to appreciate medical front liners battling to control the spread of Covid-19, I urge the government to expand and fine-tune the policy to make sure that no healthcare workers get left out of the incentive especially those directly involved in the handling of Covid-19 cases in the different hospitals and even clinics around Sarawak.
“Based on the directive released by the State Health Department (JKNS), all healthcare workers including doctors, nurses, medical assistants and other healthcare workers that are directly involved in the handling of Covid-19 cases are eligible for such incentives starting April 2020 on the condition that they worked for at least ’15 days’ at the ‘Influenza-like-illness (ILI)’ or ‘Person-under-Investigation’ (PUIs) bay in their respective healthcare centres.
“I urge the State Government to follow the federal government’s footsteps in waiving the rigid requirement of ’15 days’ working only for ‘Influenza-like-illness(ILI)’ or ‘Person-under-Investigation(PUIs)’ in order to qualify for the incentive as healthcare workers, in general, do also put themselves at risk of exposure especially among asymptomatic carriers or patients that are not honest about their history,” said Dr Yii in a press statement today.
Dr Yii explained that the situation in Sarawak is that as many healthcare workers work under a shift or rotation system, they fail to fulfil the required 15 days a month to qualify for the full incentive.
“Days working in the other wards or clinics are not considered to qualify for such incentives. This does not mean they work any less or that the risk they are exposed to is not serious,” said Dr Yii.
He claimed that due to the ’15 day requirement”, many healthcare workers in Sarawak are not eligible to BKSS health care worker incentive even though they are committed while working at the ILI triage or PUI bays even with the lack of personal protective equipment and proper protection at their respective hospitals or clinics. —DayakDaily
