I am amazed that the Star reports Parents of housemen want Govt to put an end to the misery
PETALING JAYA: Parents of housemen are calling for government intervention on allegations that housemen are constantly bullied and ridiculed by senior doctors besides being forced to work up to 16 hours daily.
A parent from Selayang, who only wanted to be known as Ahmad, 58, said his son and daughter-in-law, who are both undergoing housemanship, had complained of bullying at their hospitals.
“They said many housemen had quit because they could not take the pressure and the bullying by the senior doctors,” he said, adding that housemen were also ridiculed in front of patients and visitors.
Ahmad also claimed the senior doctors made uncalled-for statements such as: “You do not deserve to be here” and “You are only here because you are a rich man’s son/daughter”.
Ahmad added that housemen at some hospitals hardly had any work to do because there were too many of them at one hospital, while other housemen were working between 14 and 16 hours a day because there were not enough doctors.
“They are at the mercy of seniors who evaluate them. The ministry does not gather feedback from the housemen to see if they were being evaluated objectively,” he said.
The responsibility of senior doctors is first and foremost patient safety. Housemanship is a harsh training ground and there is little room for mistakes since lives are at stake. If the houseman is weak or poorly trained, then he or she would expect to be told off more than if he or she were more competent. Surely those entering medical school too should be aware that a doctors life is a hard one. To quote Martin Fischer
A doctor must work eighteen hours a day and seven days a week. If you cannot console yourself to this, get out of the profession
Dear parents, your children are all grown up now. Welcome to the working world.
from the Malaysian Medical Resources
Now parents get into the act
