By Azian Aziz
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — The Selangor Health Partnership (Selhep) programme is the best platform for the state public health service to draft strategies and new approaches to bring more benefits to the people.
State executive councillor for public health Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud said the inaugural programme aimed to promote smart partnerships between the state government with non-government organisations (NGOs), academicians, research institutions and the private sector.
She said Selhep will create a public health service that is efficiently managed and cost-effective through the improvement of its targets and existing programmes.
“In order to realise Selhep, the state government through the Selangor State Public Health Advisory Council has opened applications to interested parties to submit suggestions on what they can assist in several public health priorities.
“As a result, a total of 341 organisations showed their interest and 125 proposal papers were received, but only 35 proposal papers that bring an impact were shortlisted to be presented before being decided.
“After that, the selected proposals will be implemented with funds from the state government,” she said after launching Selhep at iSpace Plaza Vads here today.
Dr Siti Mariah said the eight critical public health priorities set under Selhep include mental health, cervical cancer, healthy ageing, non-communicable diseases, early childhood nutrition, health literacy, drug addiction and tuberculosis.
Before this, the state government implemented various health programmes including the Iltizam Selangor Sihat which offers basic treatment assistance of up to RM500, insurance coverage of up to RM5,000 and a death benefit of RM1,000 to low-income groups.
Selangor residents are also offered the free Selangor Saring health screening to identify diabetes, high blood pressure, as well as diseases affecting the heart and kidney, which is in addition to the Selangor Cancer (SelCan) programme which offers diagnosis, treatment and recovery for cancer.
