HWCITF’s 162-page report fails to confirm if workplace bullying is a real problem faced by junior doctors, lacks personal stories, and makes sweeping recommendations without providing data or evidence.
MOH has to accept the recommendations brought forth by the HWCITF and work on implementing them. A time frame should be given for a review of the implementation.
In HWCITF’s poll, 23% of supervisors or managers in MOH admit committing workplace bullying; of the nearly 4,700 self-confessed bullies, 20% say they engage in severe bullying. Housemen and junior MOs (grade 41-44) only comprise 11% of total respondents.
HWCITF’s 23-page survey with 44 questions on health care work culture requires Google sign-in, email add, grade, state, work facility type, tenure, age, gender, marital status, and ethnicity, besides asking supervisors to admit if they’ve bullied others.
Khairy Jamaluddin says some specialists have been accused of bullying housemen, but they’re working as usual pending investigations as it’s not easy to transfer specialists.
Contrary to what many think, MOH takes prevention of workplace bullying very seriously. There are sufficient organisational structures to deal with bullying at the hospital level.