Special allowance for healthcare frontliners are targeted

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry clarified that the special allowance for the frontliners in healthcare are targeted to those performing duties related to Covid-19.

Responding to an article published by an English daily last week that not all Penang Hospital staff received the allowance, Health Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Dr Chen Chaw Min said that the allowance was not meant for all 252,765 permanent officers and more than 40,000 contract officers currently serving in the ministry.

He said that the allowance was to express appreciation for the commitment of the healthcare officers who are at risk when they are instructed to perform duties related to Covid-19.

“Not all officers are instructed to perform duties related to Covid-19. Most of them are still performing their non-Covid-19 duties as usual in health facilities that are not specified for Covid-19.

“Furthermore, this directive is also not continuous in nature. Officers who no longer perform the duties or later directed to work at non-Covid-19 facilities are no longer eligible for the allowance.

“However, any healthcare officer who has not previously received the allowance will be eligible to receive it when he or she is instructed to perform the duties,” he said in a statement today.

He stressed that all the healthcare frontliners at the Penang Hospital who have been instructed and are still performing duties related to Covid-19 are duly paid the allowance.

RM3,076,300 has been distributed to them in March and September this year as their special allowance.

He said that any officer will be considered for the allowance if instructed to perform the scope of duties related to Covid-19.

“The government through the Health Ministry appreciates their concerns, sacrifices and contribution towards delivering excellent services to all patients,” he added.

Recently, an English daily published that only some of the healthcare officers received the special allowance.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz in the 2021 Budget speech said that the monthly RM600 special allowance will be extended until the pandemic has been successfully addressed.

He also announced a one-off RM500 cash aid as a show of appreciation for the Health Ministry’s frontliners, an endeavour expected to benefit 100,000 medical staff.

Source: NST