GEORGE TOWN – The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) is calling on all junior doctors and doctors-in-training to make full use of Helpdoc, a 24-hour toll-free helpline set up in 2017.
Though it has been running for more than three years now under the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), the response is not as expected, considering that a poll by the Doctors Only Bulletin Board System (DOBBS) showed nearly 80% of respondents having experienced bullying.
“The discrepancy between the DOBBS’ poll results and the ‘not so great’ number of doctors reporting to Helpdoc is worrying,” CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader said in a statement.
“It shows that doctors who were harassed are reluctant to come forward to report on their seniors.”
He said although former MMA president Mohamed Namazie had assured that callers’ identities would remain anonymous and their grouses dealt with by representatives at training hospitals in the country, the root cause of the reluctance to report harassment should be identified.
“We urge the government to institute an investigation into the grievances of the medical profession, ranging from doctors to nurses, because there have been claims that nurses have been harassed, too,” Mohideen said.
“The problem is pervasive and serious, particularly in public hospitals,” he added.
He noted that some doctors have recently confessed to the media that they have been bullied, and a doctor stated that victims quit their profession due to "exhaustion and mental trauma" and not because they lose their passion in the medical field.
“Such admissions are shocking and reveal the ugly side of the medical profession in which doctors themselves are the victims of unhealthy practices,” Mohideen said.
A doctor who wished to remain anonymous said that most doctors are more pressed to commit suicide than to quit because, once they leave as a houseman, they will never get hired again or be given a contract.
“Whenever a doctor resigns, he sort of has to accept that his life is over. At least, a lot of the superiors at hospitals like to say that – education is gone to dust."
The Vibes had recently reported that an ex-trainee doctor who had resigned from the position at Penang General Hospital allegedly committing suicide due to bullying.
Several of the hospital's doctors later admitted there is now “less shouting”, claiming there may have been a circular or warning from the higher-ups to senior medical officers and specialists to “stop the bullying”.
Doctors who experience bullying are urged to call MMA’s Helpdoc at 03-4041-1140 to talk about their issues, be they at work or mental stress stemming from the nature of the profession. – The Vibes, January 7, 2021
