KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry will set up an independent task force to probe claims of the prevalence of a bullying culture within its departments and the death of a houseman last month.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said in a tweet today he had been given an early report on the death of the houseman from the head of the trainee doctors' department.
"The police are also completing their investigation."
Earlier, Penang Health director Dr Ma'arof Sudin had said the trainee doctor was placed at the Penang Hospital on April 4 and fell to his death on April 17 from his building of residence.
He had urged all parties not to speculate on the cause of the junior doctor's death since the case was under police investigation, and out of respect for his family.
In December 2020, another houseman who quit the hospital died, fuelling speculation of bullying and humiliation being common among trainee doctors, or housemen.
Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy and state executive councillor for health Norlela Ariffin had both highlighted the houseman's death and called on the authorities to delve deeper into the incident.
Norlela had claimed junior doctors at government hospitals in Malaysia were subject to "inhumane working conditions" that often left them exhausted and vulnerable to "accidents".
Ramasamy had alleged the latest houseman fatality was the result of bullying and harassment, adding that it was the second incident in two years.
In a separate statement, Penang Consumers Protection Association president Datuk K. Koris Atan proposed that the Health Ministry conduct a "major overhaul" of the housemanship procedures in government hospitals.