Candidates With Medical Conditions Will Not Be Accepted For National Service

The Star, Wednesday June 11, 2008
By PAUL CHOO and ONG EU LIN

RAWANG: National Service (NS) candidates with medical conditions that would exempt them from physical training will not be selected for the programme beginning next year.

NS Training Department director-general Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil said these candidates were currently categorised as conditionally accepted after they sent in their medical declaration forms and were exempted from vigorous physical activities during training.

“This is to ensure that there are no untoward incidences,” he told a press conference after launching a first-aid course at the NS camp in Temasya Rimba Templer yesterday.
Abdul Hadi said these trainees often became bored whenever their fellow trainees went for physical activities.

“There is no point in asking a trainee to just stay idle while his peers take part in various exercises,” he said.

Another measure to reduce the number of illnesses and deaths from health problems included allowing trainees to label as “unsure”, in the list of 33 illnesses in their medical declaration form.

“NS officials and medical staff at camps will monitor trainees who tick ‘unsure’ more closely. In addition to this, trainees who have marked ‘yes’ to any illnesses will immediately be scrutinised by medical staff at camps upon reporting for duty,” Abdul Hadi said.

Previously, the form carried only a yes and no column for trainees to tick if they suffered from any of the listed illnesses.

The three-day first-aid course, held in collaboration with the Malaysian Red Crescent Society, is aimed at equipping NS camp management and staff with basic first-aid knowledge.

It was the second instalment of the programme, the first having trained some 200 NS personnel in level one first-aid emergency basics.

Abdul Hadi said the department also hoped to impart first-aid skills to some 500,000 trainees through the programme.