KUALA LUMPUR - A medical watchdog has said there is no place for bullying within the medical fraternity after 36 cases of bully were recorded through its helpline created in 2016.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Koh Kar Chai said the remaining 84 cases were on claims, transfers, and work.
"If there is outright bullying where there is an obvious misuse of power that is repeatedly done which creates physical, social or even mental harm, MMA will not condone this,” he said in a press conference at MMA House, Kuala Lumpur, today.
MMA launched an online HelpDoc helpline in 2016 for the medical fraternity to raise issues in privacy.
However, Dr Koh said bullying needs to be defined before any calls for reforms are made.
"Everyone is looking at incidents of bullying in the healthcare sector, particularly among the junior doctors but first, we need to define what bullying is.
"My concern is that even instructions related to work if deemed unacceptable to a junior doctor, can be construed as being bullied,” he said.
He added there is a need to look at the whole make-up of the healthcare fraternity and understand the reason why there is a high level of stress among the medical doctors, especially in recent years.
This comes following a death of a houseman at a Penang Hospital houseman last month, causing people to urge the government to address the poor working conditions of junior doctors, who are allegedly overworked and bullied.
The houseman fell to his death from a building last month, just three weeks after being posted to the hospital.
In December 2020, a trainee doctor at Penang Hospital also fell to his death – three weeks after quitting his job.