THE Health Ministry must put into practice its anti-bullying policies at the workplace, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) said.

MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai said the policies must not merely exist on paper if there is to be meaningful change in the MOH work environment and culture. 

“While the findings of the task force looking into bullying found that 60% of the respondents perceived the work culture in the ministry to be positive, it was confirmed by 20% in the survey that bullying does exist.” he said.

“Now that we know that the issue of bullying in MOH is indeed prevalent and not hearsay, the ministry needs to act by ensuring a comprehensive policy based on the recommendations of the task force to successfully eradicate the problem once and for all.”

In May, Khairy announced a task force to look into the case of a trainee doctor who fell to his death in Penang. The person was allegedly the victim of bullying at work.

Khairy said the unit would also probe into alleged bullying among trainee doctors in government service.

Doctors told The Malaysian Insight that bullying was the norm in public hospitals. They urged the task force to look into penalising those who bully, harass and intimidate trainee doctors.

Meanwhile, Koh said a new code of conduct for MOH employees and a system that includes consistent enforcement needs to be developed to transform the work culture.

“The code of conduct must emphasise respect among colleagues as its main pillar. In healthcare, respect for people should be an innate quality among all those serving,” he said.
 
Koh said said MOH had to accept the recommendations of the task force to address the problem and set a timeframe for a review.

“We believe that the HelpDoc platform that MMA set up in 2017 to report issues of bullying will have an important role going forward.

“We encourage healthcare workers affected to fully utilise the platform. MMA will do all it can to help them.” – August 20, 2022.