PUTRAJAYA must take immediate action to address the constant claims of bullying involving junior doctors and to investigate the issue justly and effectively, Malaysian Medics International (MMI) said today.

MMI, an international medical student-led organisation, urged the Health Ministry (MOH) to get directly involved in addressing the issues of bullying and unjust treatment of housemen.

MMI appealed to the MOH to implement some necessary changes in the public hospital training setting and closely reevaluate the house officer training system.

Among them, MMI suggested the ministry execute reasonable changes to the mandatory weekly work hours to alleviate both the senior and junior medical staff’s stress and improve their mental well-being.

“Countless respectable members of authority and political figures have stressed the unfairness of young doctors being expected to perform effectively under the pressure of 65 to 75 work hours weekly.

“We humbly plead that the MOH stresses implementing effective moderations to the duration of weekly work hours of junior doctors and increasing manpower,” it said in a statement today.

Next, it asked the government to encourage active maintenance of mental health and physical well-being among senior and junior medical staff members.

“We implore for the government’s insight in encouraging positive professional and pastoral support in clinical areas of high workforce stress and time-pressure settings.

“In light of reports about doctors being ridiculed for seeking pastoral support in times of personal duress, we plead that the MOH implement better maintenance of mental health and well-being policies in professional workplaces, as well as facilitate the accessibility of medical staff to mental health services they need without any stigma or prejudice towards their active initiative to preserve their mental and physical well-being for the sake of providing patient care,” it added.

Besides this, MMI also called on the fraternity to shift the cultural mindset of workforce bullying and implement more respectful communication strategies in workplace policies.

“We recognise that it has become ‘the culture’ for housemen to undergo harsh training before becoming qualified medical officers (MOs) or specialists.

“However, health authorities should also recognise that prolonged exposure to highly stressful and toxic workplace environments could potentially result in a higher vulnerability of junior doctors to negative psychological and physical health effects.”

Discrimination and vulgarities should be repressed to secure the welfare of doctors, it added.

The group also noted that studies have shown that toxic workplace environments would consequently indirectly impair the quality of patient care delivered by these future specialists and MOs should they be consistently subjected to horizontal violence and unjust work expectations.

As such, it added, serious action must be taken with immediate effect to curb the loss of further victim lives and mitigate the preservation of colleague self-dignity, psychological and physical well-being.

Finally, MMI called for complete transparency in the investigation and reevaluation of the house officer training system.

The group urged MOH to enforce a transparent front when conducting a major audit of the current work conditions for housemanship.

MMI said that there must be a complete stop to the vicious cycle of horizontal workplace violence before human nature takes its course and the industry loses further manpower as future graduates flock to greener pastures where their well-being is recognised as a priority for better patient care. – May 9, 2022.