PUTRAJAYA: Members of the public, particularly senior citizens, have been advised against paying delivery fees for medicines under the Postal Medicine Delivery Programme (UMP).
Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil said free medicine deliveries under the initiative would begin on Oct 1, with the cost fully covered by the government.
He also said registration was only available through Health Ministry facilities and warned against individuals offering to register recipients through unofficial channels, including social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook.
“There is no registration process for the programme other than through the ministry’s facilities itself. It is not done through any TikTok or Facebook account,” he told media after launching the programme yesterday.
Previously, UMP, which has been implemented since 2011, required recipients to pay a delivery fee of RM5.70 in Peninsular Malaysia and RM12.50 in Sabah and Sarawak.
The free delivery initiative, which begins tomorrow, will be implemented nationwide with an allocation of about RM5mil.
The cost of delivering the medicines will be fully borne by the government through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
Fahmi said the government had also decided to provide additional funding to ensure that all states could benefit from the programme and that the initial RM5mil allocation would be increased following discussions.
“An estimated 87,000 registered patients nationwide are expected to benefit from the programme over the course of a year.”
Meanwhile, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the programme would benefit those in rural areas and was among initiatives aimed at improving the patient experience.
“Imagine having to travel to healthcare facilities just to collect your medicines. As such, from the perspective of cost, time and convenience, this will make things much easier for them. This is what we want to improve and continue enhancing.”
He also said free medicine delivery was another step towards modernising pharmaceutical services and strengthening the digital transformation of healthcare delivery.
“The closer healthcare services are to patients’ homes, the better. Ultimately, we want to ensure continuity of care while reducing congestion at our facilities, particularly hospitals.”
Dzulkefly said the ministry was committed to modernising and transforming the country’s healthcare sector during the 15th Parliament to better serve people from all walks of life.
He said the ministry faced significant challenges in ensuring not only that its facilities were adequately prepared, but also that healthcare services could meet the needs of the people.
“The nature of our ministry is such that it is both facility-based and service-based. Therefore, the challenge for us at the ministry is to ensure that during the current Parliament session, I fulfil my ambition of assembling a modern system and delivering healthcare.
“Whatever the approach, platform or initiative, I will fulfil this as soon as possible,” he said.
Dzulkefly said the ministry had introduced various initiatives over the years to improve the delivery of pharmaceutical services, including developing the MyUbat application in 2021.
The application now has nearly 893,000 registered users and has facilitated more than six million medicine supply appointments.
