THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) will discuss the effectiveness of a complaints system for trainee doctors that has been set up in government hospitals, its president Dr Koh Kar Chai said.

He said the Health Ministry (MOH) has a system where senior doctors are given the task of taking care of trainee doctors.

“MOH has put in a system for trainee doctors to raise their grouses. 

“However, this will only be effective if every department employs it. There are some ‘black sheep’ hospitals that are not adhering to the system. 

“We are in talks with MOH on this,” Koh told a press conference at the MMA headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today. 

He did not elaborate on the hospitals that did not follow the MOH system.

He added that MOH needs to look at all issues affecting housemen, including bullying by senior doctors.

Koh said bullying cases had increased with the influx of housemen “years ago”.

“More than six years ago there was an increase in medical graduates and we have raised this concern with MOH. 

“The single major contributing factor now is the high number of medical graduates being put into the system. 

“Any abuse affecting junior or senior doctors has to be reported and action taken to prevent any continuation.”

The recent death of a houseman attached to the Penang Hospital has brought the issue of bullying among junior doctors in government service to the fore. 

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said MOH will form an independent task force to investigate the recent case of a junior doctor who fell to his death. 

He said the unit will also probe into alleged bullying among trainee doctors in the government service.

Koh today said the task force should look into the culture of bullying so as to protect the welfare of all doctors. 

He also urged trainees who are facing issues to channel their grouses to an helpline called HelpDoc that was launched by MMA in 2016. 

“Recognising that juniors may never report bullying out of fear of being singled out, MMA launched the helpline. 

“Since 2016, we have received 120 complaints. Out of that 36 were on bullying, while the others were work-related issues.”

He said he would not divulge more details on the complaints received, out of sensitivity to trainee doctors. – May 10, 2022.