MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai said recent reports on bullying cases have “misconstrued the reality of the situation”.
“With the bullying cases that have now been reported, many of the press continue to mention the few cases that occurred before.
“But looking back, how many of these cases were severe? The press are only mentioning these few cases,” he said at a press conference.
Koh said that previously, as there was a much smaller pool of housemen and junior doctors, cases of bullying or workplace mistreatment tended to be resolved in-house.
He noted that with the increase in medical graduates over the past couple of years, it would naturally lead to an increase in bullying cases.
“We cannot have such a large number of doctors suddenly coming in because the system cannot cope. We need to look into our houseman’s training in order to cope with the influx,” he said.
He called for better screening of prospective students to determine their suitability and prepare them for the hardships of being medical practitioners, stressing that the nature of the job was not a “rosebed”.
He said “harsh words” were expected during housemanship training because of the stress of the job and to ensure trainee doctors perform their duties competently.
“Many of us do not say it is bullying because it is part and parcel of learning,” he said, adding that harsh words were expected in any workplace.
Koh was speaking in the wake of the death of a Penang Hospital houseman last month, which has sparked calls for the government to address the poor working conditions of junior doctors, who are allegedly overworked and bullied.
The houseman fell to his death from his apartment on April 17, just three weeks after being posted to the hospital.
In December 2020, a trainee doctor at Penang Hospital also fell to his death – three weeks after quitting his job.
Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy and state health committee chairman Norlela Ariffin have since spoken out on the plight of the junior doctors.
Last week, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said an independent task force would be formed to investigate the latest incident, adding that it would also investigate the culture of bullying which housemen and junior doctors have alleged.