THE national health voucher programme has recorded a 144 per cent year-on-year increase in utilisation, with more than 461,000 vouchers processed over two years, which signals a strong public uptake of the measure.

This was disclosed by Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, during the recent MoU signing with health-care service providers participating in the initiative, which he described as a very successful one.

“We started this programme in 2024, and we were able to do 134,152 tests,” Anthony said. “By 2025, we saw that number jump, and we went up to 326,868 vouchers that were used. That accounts for a 144 per cent increase year on year, and I think that’s significant.”

According to the minister, the vouchers cover services including eye testing, spectacles, and Human papillomavirus (HPV) screening and a universal health voucher with 461,020 vouchers processed across 2024 and 2025.

Over the same period, he indicated that 175,200 eye tests were conducted and 160,282 spectacles were distributed nationwide.

Added to this, laboratory services also showed substantial uptake, with 91,501 adult tests and 13,112 child tests completed, while some 20,852 women accessed HPV screening through the programme.

The health minister noted that the data demonstrates both demand for affordable testing and the programme’s role in early disease detection.

“These vouchers are very important because from the results, we are able to understand what is going on in our population… We can bring people into care and manage the problems that they have,” he said.

He noted that screenings have already identified thousands of cases of diabetes, high cholesterol and other metabolic conditions, many involving patients who were previously unaware of their status, while eye-care screenings have also led to the identification and treatment of cataracts and glaucoma.

Against this backdrop, Dr Anthony highlighted that the growing volume of data generated by the programme has strengthened the ministry’s ability to analyse disease trends by region, sex and age group, allowing for more targeted public-health interventions.

“This is not just a transactional relationship… The utilisation of what we test and how we use that information is also very important,” he told providers at the signing ceremony.