HTAR doctors who participated in strike to get show-cause letters

 

Contract doctors from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah in Klang who participated in yesterday’s strike will be slapped with show-cause letters.

Malay daily Kosmo reported HTAR director Dr Zulkarnain Mohd Rawi as saying that the participants will be asked to explain their actions.

Zulkarnain was also quoted as saying that doctors should be bound by their ethics and should not allow their profession to be sullied.

“Doctors must sacrifice themselves for the patients and not sacrifice the patients for themselves.

“Doctors must help those in need regardless of their self-interest,” he was quoted as saying.

Zulkarnain added that doctors should not be influenced by incitement to join the strike as the government was already addressing the issue.

“We do not work to be glamorous. A doctor’s work is noble. Don’t throw the profession away until it is looked down upon,” he was quoted as saying.

Yesterday, hundreds of government contract doctors nationwide, including at HTAR, staged a walkout in a bid to lobby for better job security.

Under the current system, contract doctors face joblessness after the end of their five-year training because the government does not have the budgetary means to offer them permanent positions.

Government offers to extend contracts...

As a result, many of the contract doctors have to move to the private sector or continue their specialist training abroad.

Last Friday (July 23), the government offered to extend their contracts for up to four years but stopped short of offering permanent positions.

However, it promised to ensure similar perks with permanent doctors.

Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK), a government contract doctors collective, described it as “half-cooked”, stressing that offering contract extension was not the solution.

The HDK organisers outlined procedures to ensure that the care of hospital patients would not be jeopardised in any way.

Among others, HDK’s guidelines for participants assigned to critical care departments state that they should only walk out at 11am after “pass-over” or transfer of duties to the permanent doctor on duty.

Most returned to work after the symbolic strike.

Prior to the strike, they faced intimidation and threats from the management of public hospitals, warning of action and repercussions to their careers. - Mkini