Go beyond basic feedback, healthcare experts say on task force’s report

GEORGE TOWN – The findings of the Healthcare Work Culture Improvement Task Force (HWCITF) should be comprehensive by including feedback from all quarters in the medical fraternity, rather than just assessing the work culture in the public practice.

This was conveyed by two Penang leaders here, who stressed that the task force should have come out with a detailed report on complaints on issues like working hours and rest areas, rather than just obtaining basic feedback.

The HWCITF report also ruled that a recent death involving a young houseman was not related to suicide.

Penang health exco Dr Norlela Ariffin shared with The Vibes her views, citing that the report should have expanded on many aspects involving housemen and junior doctors.

“My request was to look at the overall working situation for all housemen, investigate long working hours and inadequate eating hours, as well as (whether they are) having proper rest,” she said.

She admitted that she has also received five forms of complaints about bullying at workplaces (public healthcare facilities) in Penang.

Dr Norlela also urged the Health Ministry to compare the situation in Malaysia with how other countries are training their housemen.

“I gave the United Kingdom and Australia healthcare systems as comparisons,” she said.

Former Batu Uban assemblyman Datuk Dr T. Jayabalan, a veteran medical doctor, said that the report has vast room for improvement.

There should not be any denial about the bullying culture in public hospitals, he stressed in an interview. 

He expressed gratitude to those behind the report, but stressed that more attention should have been paid to the bullying culture.

The national task force had recently concluded its probe into the allegations that the death of the houseman was related to suicide after he had reportedly fallen from his apartment here last April.

HWCITF maintained this stance as long as there was no new information relating to the houseman’s death from police through their investigations into the case.

“Also, more than 60% of our survey respondents have described the work culture in the Health Ministry as positive, especially in terms of patient care, community and teamwork,” its chairman Prof Datuk Siti Hamisah Tapsir was quoted as saying.

Siti Hamisah, who is a former Science, Technology, and Innovation Ministry secretary-general, reportedly also said that only 20% of the respondents were neutral while the remaining 20% had negative views on the working culture. – The Vibes, August 19, 2022