Bullied trainee doctors urged to lodge complaint

MELAKA - Trainee doctors (housemen) in Melaka who are being bullied to the point of tarnishing their dignity are urged to lodge a complaint so that prompt action can be taken.

State Health and Anti-Drugs Committee chairman Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh said trainee doctors who were victims of bullying could complain to him via Facebook or personally because such incidents should not take place in a professional and critical sector.

"I will personally investigate the complaint and take action if it actually took place because I will not allow any trainee doctor in Melaka to be bullied so badly as to undermine their dignity as long as I am holding this portfolio.

"A stern warning is also given to medical officers or specialists who arbitrarily bully trainee doctors without mercy,” he said in a statement here today.

He said trainee doctors should be trained well and not be casually bullied because the two-year housemanship period which the group must go through was a most important and critical period.

Muhamad Akmal said the trainee doctors must apply the knowledge learned at the school of medicine during an actual working situation and were also forced to work in a stressed situation and long working hours.

He said the experience the trainee doctors went through during the housemanship period would give a long term impact to their careers besides making them proficient doctors.

"I was also a houseman for two years at Ampang Hospital and experienced the trials and tribulations of learning and gleaning experience to become a doctor. Thank God, no senior, medical officers or specialists bullied me to the point of undermining my dignity,” he said.

Prior to this, the media reported that a trainee doctor who was stationed at the Penang Hospital early last month was believed to have died after falling from a building last April 17.

The Health Ministry was also reportedly setting up an independent task force to investigate the death of the trainee doctor and the allegation of bullying at government facilities. - BERNAMA