SUNGAI BULOH: The Health Ministry is looking to enhance the whistleblowing system to improve reporting of bullying cases within the healthcare sector as well as to protect whistleblowers, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic).

“It is already there but now we want to enhance and improve the system,” the Health director-general told reporters at the National Leprosy Control Centre in Sungai Buloh on Saturday (May 14).

He went on to note that bullying was a negative culture that exists not only in the healthcare system but in other institutions as well.

“We cannot accept bullying, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse and harrasment,” he said.

He said the ministry will extend its full cooperation to the independent taskforce set up to look into cases of bullying of junior doctors.

“This taskforce is independent and not from the Health Ministry,” he said while adding that the taskforce will also provide guidelines and propose measures that could be taken by the ministry to tackle the problem.

Dr Noor Hisham noted that while it takes strength and a strong spirit to undergo training to be a doctor, the bullying culture cannot be condoned.

The Star, in its report on May 7, reported on the ordeal of junior doctors who worked long hours and faced issues such as mental health issues and bullying culture within the medical sector.

On April 17, a 25-year-old houseman at Penang Hospital died, following a fall from his rented apartment unit in Jalan Datuk Keramat, George Town.

The...

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