THE Health Ministry has established an independent special task force to look into the work culture of healthcare services, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He said that the unit is named healthcare work culture improvement task rorce.

“Apart from the incident involving the death of a graduate medical officer at the Penang Hospital, there were also reports and complaints about bullying and mental stress problems faced not only by junior doctors but also health service staff.”

The task force was formed following the death of a 25-year-old junior doctor in Penang Hospital last month, who jumped to her death from an office building in George Town, Penang.

Khairy had last week said that he would form a task force to look into the matter.

Khairy said the task force’s primary task was to investigate the Penang Hospital junior doctor’s death. It would also evaluate the work culture and human resource management in government health service.

It will present a report to the health minister two months from now.

Khairy said the task force would be chaired by Professor Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir, former secretary-general of the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry.

Siti is the vice-chancellor of UCSI University.

The task force consists of eight experts in their respective fields.

They are former CIMB Bank chief people officer Hamidah Naziadin, consultant paediatrician Professor Dr Zabidi Azhar Mohd Hussin, lawyer Mohamed Ridza Abdullah, consultant psychiatrist Dr Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin, Dr Chong Su-Lin, World Health Organisation’s patient advocate Manvir Victor, Sivaramakrishnan Balasubramaniam and a representative from the Public Service Department.

Khairy said the Health Ministry is committed in its efforts to improve the working environment of health service staff. 

“I must admit this effort takes some time to bear fruit but I would like to emphasise that a conducive and harmonious work environment starts with respecting, supporting and helping our colleagues.

“Now is not the time for us to argue nor the time to point fingers.

“We have gone through the Covid-19 pandemic challenge together, thanks to the commitment and close cooperation of all health workers, we are now in the transition to the endemic phase,” he said. – May 13, 2022.