Penang exco says junior doctors subjected to 'inhumane' conditions

 

Junior doctors have long been subjected to “illogical, inhumane” working conditions in Malaysia, said Penang state executive councillor Norlela Ariffin.

This comes after a house officer attached to the Penang General Hospital yesterday fell to his death from an office building.

“I have brought up these illogical, inhumane working hours faced by house officers based on my own family’s experience in Malaysia, which other employees in other sectors would never be subjected to.

“She experienced 27 accidents because (she was) too tired and Alhamdullilah survived. Her friend died. I remember a previous doctor killed himself,” Norlela said in a Facebook posting today.

She said her daughter-in-law is now so much happier with the “humane work-life conditions” ever since she started working at a hospital in the UK about three years ago.

The Health Ministry and politicians are not taking this issue seriously enough, she said.

“Rite of passage”

Instead, the response she usually gets from them is that this is a “rite of passage” that all doctors have to go through.

“It is like an accepted culture in the medical profession,” she lamented.

It was reported yesterday that a junior doctor had died after he apparently fell from an office building in Georgetown, Penang.

The death of the house officer, just three weeks after he was posted to the Penang Hospital, had prompted an outcry from his colleagues, who urged the authorities not to dismiss this as a “common” issue.

It was previously reported that another trainee doctor who resigned from the same hospital had died suddenly in December 2020.

Norlela said she has alerted Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and other officers about this recent incident because they “do not take this seriously enough”.

“The state’s Health Department says the overwork problem is because there isn’t enough manpower but there are plenty of medical graduates who did not (get a position) or had to wait a long time to get a job.

“It does not make sense for the Health Ministry to let this issue continue on when doctors need to make life-or-death decisions when they treat patients under these kinds of working conditions,” she said.

P Ramasamy

In a separate statement today, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy said the death of the junior doctor had highlighted the “appalling” conditions of training at government hospitals around the country.

“The police might label the death by suicide as ‘sudden death’, but there must be investigations about what led to the death.

“It cannot be dismissed as sudden death because there are allegations of bullying and hassling of trainee doctors at Penang General Hospital.

“If the manner and nature of training are not addressed, more unfortunate incidents can be expected,” he said.

Badly treated

There have been numerous stories about how badly junior doctors are treated, he said, comparing the treatment to “ragging” that usually happens in student hostels.

It is not a surprise that these doctors go to the private sector as soon as they finish their training in government hospitals, he said.

“I wonder what the administration of the public hospitals are doing about this bullying and shaming of young doctor trainees.

“What about the Health Ministry? Are they so preoccupied with containing the Covid-19 pandemic that everything else has been forgotten or swept under the carpet?” Ramasamy questioned. - Mkini