KUALA LUMPUR – Police will deploy teams to monitor standard operating procedure compliance at today’s planned #HartalDoktorKontrak protest.
Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the force has not received information to indicate that the event will affect public order.
In a statement last night, he said the monitoring is to ensure the protest is carried out according to the SOPs set out in the National Recovery Plan.
“Police are aware that there are doctors taking part in protests across the country,” he was reported as saying by Astro Awani.
“However, police have not received information that the protests will threaten public order.”
Yesterday, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah made an eleventh-hour plea to medical practitioners, asking them not to participate in the planned walkout from hospitals.
In a Facebook post, he said doctors taking part in the strike are putting patients’ lives at risk and their own jobs on the line.
He reminded them of the oath they took when starting out in their career.
“Calling on all my fellow colleagues, doctors and healthcare workers to remember the oath we all made when we began our profession: primum non nocere, (which means) first, do no harm or injustice to our patients.
“To our junior colleagues with contract posts, I urge all of you to please not join the demonstration and abandon your duty to your patients.
“Remember, many lives are on the line, and the demonstration could affect their lives and your career.”
The #HartalDoktorKontrak movement has pushed for doctors on contract to be given permanent employment and improved benefits, including better access to further their studies.
It maintains that its “protest” will go ahead today despite the government’s offer to extend doctors’ contracts.
In a statement on the movement’s Facebook page over the weekend, its organisers said they are not buying the extension.
“Offering us years of contract is not a solution; it’s a sugar-coated statement to shut us up.
“We know well how the system works, and we are not buying it. Nobody wise enough will accept it.
“Stop giving us a half-baked solution given by people who are not even in this field or don’t know how the system works. Maybe (they) don’t even bother to think thoroughly about it because the problem is not theirs.
“Give us a clear plan, a clear solution for our career. Can we afford to lose more and more people now?” – The Vibes, July 26, 2021
