PUTRAJAYA, Nov 9 — The Health Ministry’s plan to distribute free dengue test kits to private clinics to speed up early diagnosis was a failure, ministry officials admitted.
Part of the RM30 million allocation under Budget 2015 to combat dengue was used to buy 55,000 combo rapid test kits but checks by Malay Mail revealed fewer than 5,000 kits were taken up.
The ministry’s Disease Control Division director, Dr Chong Chee Kheong, said the ministry had decided to buy the kits because the public had complained that private clinics charged upwards of RM60 for the test.
He said private clinics looking to get the free dengue test kits had to apply to the ministry’s district office and fulfill a set of requirements.
“The clinics had to be located in the hotspots in Klang Valley. Patient information and evidence that patients were not charged had to be submitted in order to receive new kits,” he said.
“The kits were meant to be distributed during Ops Mega (from July to September last year) as the situation then was serious but the response from private clinics was poor and the idea was dropped.
“The remaining test kits were returned to the government.”
Dr Chong said the kits were never meant to be a long-term programme and the ministry had instead switched to offering the kits at a lower price to private clinics.
“We were offering the kits for under RM20 but even then, there was little interest,” he said.
Asked if the initiative was a “failure”, he said: “You could call it that.”
Head of the Vector Borne Disease Sector Division Dr Rose Nani Mudin refuted a Bernama report claiming the entire RM30 million allocated in Budget 2015 was used to buy the kits.
“The kits were just one aspect. The rest went to community awareness and fogging equipment including reagents and mist blowers,” she said.
