A houseman attached to Penang Hospital died after he fell from an office building along Jalan Datuk Keramat, reported The Vibes.
When contacted by the local news portal, Penang Northeast district police head Soffian Santong confirmed the incident and said the case was classified as a sudden death report. However, he did not rule out the possibility of the case being reclassified if fresh evidence comes to light.
The houseman was posted to the hospital just 3 weeks before his sudden demise here.
Meanwhile, the daily reported that this is the second death to involve a junior doctor in the span of two years.
Back in December 2020, it was reported that another doctor who had resigned from the same hospital had died suddenly. The incident then triggered an outcry among his colleagues, who called on the authorities to seriously look into the matter instead of dismissing it as a “common” issue.
Speaking to The Vibes, the doctors reveal that bullying in the medical fraternity is a pervasive problem. The housemen in Penang Hospital are said to have undergone tough working conditions due to demands not only from patients but also from fellow doctors.
The treatment meted on them by some seniors, both medical officers (MO) and specialists, makes their experience worse.
Some claimed that housemen are required to work up to 16 and 17 hours as part of the process to prepare them for the noble profession.
A senior doctor who declined to be named said that the training regimen may cause some housemen to be distressed because they must undergo strict observation as it is a matter of life and death when patients undergo treatment there.
Meanwhile, the Penang Health Department has confirmed that a graduate medical officer fell from his residential building on 17 April.
According to CodeBlue, Penang Health Department director Dr Ma’arof Sudin said the case is being investigated by the police and an autopsy was carried out.
“The autopsy was performed at Hospital Penang’s Forensic Department. We are still waiting for some laboratory test results to have a complete report of the investigation,” he added.
As the case is still under investigation, the department urged the cooperation of all parties not to make any speculation or to spread unverified information about this incident.
