Page 46 - npqh NATIONAL POLICY FOR QUALITY IN HEALTHCARE : Bridging Silos, Accelerating Improvements 2022-2026

National Policy for Quality in Healthcare
Bridging Silos, Accelerating Improvements

Smoke Free Oral Health (KOTAK) Patient, Community
Year Introduced: 2016 Involvement and Empowerment

» KOTAK, a screening and smoking cessation programme for schoolchildren was

introduced in 2016, in tandem with Malaysia's vision of being tobacco free by the
year 2045.
» This community initiative is a collaborative effort between Oral Health Programme
(OHP), Ministry of Health (MOH), Disease Control Division, MOH and the School
Education Division, Ministry of Education (MOE), Malaysia and has been incorporated
in the School Dental Service (SDS) programme.
» All primary and secondary schoolchildren in national/ public funded schools have
been screened for smoking till 2020. Identified smokers will have to undergo smoking
intervention to help them quit smoking.
» As of 2019, 99.4% and 97.4% of primary and secondary schoolchildren respectively
were examined and assessed under this programme. However, in 2020, due to the
movement control order to curb Covid 19 infection, coverage dropped to 44.0%
and 47.0 % of primary and secondary schoolchildren respectively. OHP, MOH aims
to emerge above these uncertain circumstances and situation by implementing SDS
-KOTAK namely, on a virtual platform.

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