James Kon
BND250,000 will be utilised to fund health programmes under the Health Promotion Centre (HPC) such as the Growing, Learning, Optimising Towards Better Well-Being in Schools (GLOW) Programme hoping to implement comprehensive health promotion programmes for better students’ health.
HPC Head Dr Hajah Norhayati binti Haji Muhammad Kassim, in an interview, said, the cooperation between the HPC and Gleneagles JPMC “Is based on priority being placed on preventing heart diseases. Gleneagles JPMC hopes to prevent heart diseases through a healthy lifestyle.“
She added, “We have reached out to ministries where we carried out health screening. More than 20,000 civil servants have been screened in the past few years and around 2,000 people have been referred to health centres for high blood pressure.
“More than 200 civil servants have also received training to facilitate health activities in their ministries with a total of 598 exercise sessions conducted since 2019.”
When the COVID-19 outbreak occurred, she said, “We changed our mode of delivery by focussing on digital platform. The funds will help build a website that contains health modules that can be accessed anytime.”
The plan, she said, “is to improve the website and support the private sectors who wish to create a healthy workplace.”
She added, “It is important to spread awareness on the importance of healthy lifestyles to students because they are young and are the future generation of the country. We received guidance from the World Health Organization on promoting health in schools and shared it with more than 40 schools, including private schools.”
As of January this year, she revealed “Six schools have been recruited into the initiatives, and 61 teachers from 34 private schools attended a two-day workshop. Schools will need to develop their own policies and allocate resources to deliver “components of health promotion.”
Meanwhile, Gleneagles JPMC Chief Operating Officer ‘Izzul Hamzi bin Haji Jomari, called the MoU in increasing awareness and understanding on the importance of cardiovascular health. “We aim to become one of the enablers of a health conscious nation.”
