MELAKA: Beginning next year, the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) will make it compulsory for all its panel clinics and X-ray facilities to convert X-ray films to digital format.
Its president and chief executive officer Mohd Hatar Ismail said the digital format, which was introduced in 2014 and supported by the health ministry, aimed to improve the quality and standard of health screening services offered to foreign workers in the country.
“Previously, the initiative was not made compulsory as it involved high costs and there was no real need for it.
“So far, 832 (about 71.2%) of X-ray facilities under Fomema are using the digital format.
“Only 32.8%, or 271 facilities, are still adopting the analogue format,” he said after a programme with employers of foreign workers here today.
He said 84.8% of all the X-ray films received by Fomema from January until May this year were in the digital format.