GEORGE TOWN: Lawmakers in the state have urged the Health Ministry and the state Health Department to explain the death of a houseman attached to the Penang Hospital recently.
The houseman, who had just been posted to the hospital three weeks ago, had apparently fallen from a building along Jalan Datuk Keramat here.
For now, police are probing the incident as sudden death.
State Health Committee chairman Dr Norlela Ariffin and Bukit Mertajam member of parliament Steven Sim Chee Keong said health authorities must thoroughly investigate the incident as this was the second involving a houseman in less than two years.
Norlela said the ministry and state Health Department should shed light on the case and the situation faced by doctors in hospitals.
She said she had brought up the illogical inhumane working hours faced by houseman based on her own family's experience in Malaysia, which other employees in other sectors would never be subjected to.
"She (my family member) experienced 27 accidents because of lethargy and survived all. Her friend, however, died.
"I remember a previous doctor who killed himself.
"But the response I got from the health authorities, including politicians, was that all doctors had to go through this rite of passage. Its like an accepted culture in the medical profession.
"Since my daughter-in-law worked in the ICU Trauma Hospital in the United Kingdom for the past three years, she seemed so much happier with the humane work-life conditions," she said in her latest Facebook posting.
Norlela said she was told that the issue of overwork was due to lack of manpower.
She, however, pointed out that many medical graduates needed to wait for a long time for job and some did not even get it.
"It is illogical for the Health Ministry to allow this to go on when doctors need to make life-death decisions when treating patients in the situation they are facing," she added.
Meanwhile, Sim said it was not time to be "secretive" about the incident.
"The media had previously reported about the high level of stress and 'bullying' involving junior doctors.
"The Health Ministry must investigate this immediately.
"We understand the stress faced by the medical fraternity but the ministry must have a better management strategy.
"Don't let our hospitals be a place where all the young doctors fall. Doctors take care of us. In turn, we too must take care of them," he added in his Facebook posting.
It was reported that northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Soffian Santong, who confirmed the houseman's death, did not rule out the possibility of the case being reclassified if fresh evidence comes to light.