By Sarah Hafizah Chandra & Alexandra Lorna
BRIGHT young medical graduates are potential future specialists who can greatly contribute to the society. Hence the formation of the new ‘Healthcare Work Culture Improvement Task Force’ is opportune to address the bullying of housemen in public hospitals.
Datuk Ibrahim Baki (GPS-Satok) pointed out that the bullying of housemen in public hospitals is an open secret among fresh medical graduates, nurses, and their parents.
Describing the issue as toxic and disgusting, he stated that harsh and inhumane ill-treatment of junior doctors doing housemanship should be avoided at all costs.
“A houseman’s death in Penang has raised questions regarding the toxic work environment faced by trainee doctors in public hospitals including in Sarawak.
“While I agree some knocks and rigorous two-years training are needed so that our future doctors can rise to the occasion especially for emergency and critical cases that they will have to handle in the future. But to subject our house officers to such bullying is not the right thing to do.
“Therefore, we should not condone any such act by doctors or specialists who supervise them. They should not treat fresh medical graduates who are just starting to build their careers as slaves and ‘punching bags’,” he said.
He said this in his maiden speech during the motion of appreciation to the Head of State (TYT) Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud today.
Ibrahim who is also the GPS DUN Chief Whip lauded Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on the formation of the task force as it is an initiative that will evaluate the work culture and Human Resource Management in the healthcare sector in general.
Adding on, he suggested that proper guidelines on the supervision of fresh medical graduates or house officers should be formulated by the Ministry of Health (MOE).
He noted that senior doctors and specialists should be given proper professional training on how to supervise house officers with the sole aim as to make them competent doctors.
“Senior doctors should treat fresh medical graduates with decorum, civility, and respect. They should be treated as equals by seniors as normally practised in the United Kingdom or Australia and other developed countries.
“Junior doctors should be treated as colleagues, not as lowly beings who they can abuse and bully,” he said.
At the same time, he suggested that the MOE should stipulate the maximum number of hours for fresh medical graduates.
“I would like to suggest the MOE establish a supervisory or inspectorate committee that will visit the hospitals and listen to feedback from housemen on whatever experiences they encountered during their housemanship.
“This is so that whatever problems arise can be nipped at the bud. Besides that, every public hospital in Sarawak should establish a unit to help medical officers deal with emotional and mental health problems,” he said.
