After intense pressure from all sides including the opposition throughout the 2016 Budget debate session, the Minister for Women, Family, and Community Development, Rohani Abdul Karim, finally made a u-turn on the government’s HPV vaccination and mammogram subsidy programmes.
Both programmes were allocated a total of RM20 million in 2014. This was reduced to only RM2 million in 2015, a 90% cut in budget. In the 2016 Budget, the allocations for both programmes were removed totally, a 100% budget cut.
On 30 November, Minister Rohani in reply to my questions raised during the Ministry’s 2016 Budget committee stage debate said that the government will continue this two programmes in 2016 with 50,000 slots for mammogram screening and 70,000 slots for HPV vaccination.
This is indeed a much welcomed development.
As I have pointed out, the programmes were highly popular. According to the numbers provided by the government, over 260,000 women were screened through the said mammogram programme and from that number, about 25,000 of them were referred to further breast cancer examination.
The Ministry’s mammogram and HPV vaccination programmes only cost 0.01% of the 2016 Budget
The allocation for both programmes (using 2014 as reference) is a mere 0.01% of the 2016 Budget. Hence it does not make any sense for these highly popular and critical life-saving programmes to be abolished when the Prime Minister’s Department will be receiving an additional RM1.1 billion allocation in 2016.
In my debate, I have urged the government to produce a report on the results of the programmes. This is to enable a better assessment of their efficacy. If there are any shortcomings, they should be addressed to ensure the maximisation of tax money spent. The programmes should also be complemented by awareness campaign especially in the rural areas to educate the people on these critical health issues, as well as to enable them to take advantage of government-subsidised health programmes.
The government should also continue the breast prostheses and post-mastectomy bras subsidies
Finally, during the committee stage debate, I have urged the Ministry to continue the subsidy programme for breast prostheses and post-mastectomy bras. The programme which was started in 2014 has benefitted 5,916 breast cancer survivors. Given that breast cancer remains the most frequently occurring cancer in Malaysia, all these programmes are very critical to ensure proper healthcare is delivered to Malaysians at large and patients in particular.