A doctor was allegedly so badly bullied by a fellow doctor that she ended up not completing her housemanship programme and, instead, locked herself up in a filthy and dilapidated room for years due to depression caused by the alleged bullying.
The Hartal Doktor Kontrak group shared the doctor’s story after explaining how they had launched an anti-bullying movement among healthcare workers, as they believe bullying is rampant within the healthcare community.
They wrote, “3 years ago, Hartal Doktor Kontrak launched a movement, #stopworkplacebullying, where we shared stories of healthcare workers from the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) being bullied by bosses and colleagues.”
“Some were bullied to the point of severe depression, and some almost committed suicide.”
“The Healthcare Work Culture Improvement Task Force (HWCITF) was established to investigate and provide recommendations on the problem of bullying and how to deal with it within MOH. The Hartal group was also invited to give some opinions and views to the team.”
A doctor was severely bullied to the point of depression
After explaining this, they shared how a doctor in Sabah, Dr S, had dropped out of her housemanship programme after allegedly being bullied into a depressive state.
“One of the victims of bullying is Dr S, as seen in the video we have shared in this post. She was severely bullied by a perpetrator at the Tawau Hospital while the former was completing her housemanship training. She was bullied so badly that she became severely depressed and no longer worked as a houseman, but instead, just locked herself up in their room for many years,”
“And the bully? (The bully) has already migrated abroad and is in a specialist programme there.”
In their video, they showcased how Dr S has been living in a dirty room, having not taken care of herself as she’d been in a depressive state due to the alleged bullying.
The government has taken notice
Considering the sheer number of bullying cases among healthcare workers in Malaysia, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad has shared MOH’s plan to implement guidelines in managing bullying cases at hospitals and clinics.
“Since we have seen for ourselves just how severe the implications of bullying cases among MOH health workers are, we give full support to YBMK Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and his team, who are expected to launch bullying management guidelines at government clinics and hospitals in October of this year, to create a safe and harmonious work environment free from the threat of negativity,”
“Hopefully, this bullying issue can be completely eradicated not only in MOH but in other sectors throughout the country.”
To Dr S and her family, and many other victims of bullying whom we were unable to help before, we, Hartal Doktor Kontrak, would like to apologise for having failed to help you before. Please forgive us,” they added.
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