COMMENT | Healing the healing profession

COMMENT | A very paradoxical reality, but such is the dire situation of the healing fraternity in the Health Ministry.

The recent doctor’s suicidal act in Penang maybe was totally unrelated to bullying at the hospital, as per the Rashomon effect, but it surely has opened the pandora’s box of the toxic work culture that is both chronic and perennial in the ministry.

There is a paucity of data on bullying in the ministry. Probably the first report of workplace bullying among junior doctors in Malaysia was a multicentre, cross-sectional study of 1,074 house officers (HOs) in 12 government hospitals accredited for HO training.

The six-month study from November 2017 to May 2018 showed a high workplace bullying prevalence of 13 percent.

Complaints from the HOs included...