KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) contract doctors who participated in yesterday’s walkout could face disciplinary action, Kosmo! Online reported today.
The hospital’s director Dr Zulkarnain Mohd Rawi was quoted as saying that those who joined the #HartalDoktorKontrak walkout would be issued a show-cause letter, to which he expected a formal reply.
He said, as doctors, they are bound by professional ethics, such as the Hippocratic Oath.
“Doctors are supposed to sacrifice themselves for the sake of patients, and not patients sacrificing themselves for the sake of doctors.
“So doctors are supposed to selflessly support those who are suffering,” he told the Malay daily.
He said the contract doctors should not have been influenced by any incitement to join the hartal as the government has since extended the doctors’ contract period.
“We don’t work for glamour. The work of a doctor is noble, and so don’t jeopardise the medical profession to a point where it is looked down upon by society.
“A lot of medical knowledge can be gained while working in the public sector where they take on all sorts of cases which can be applied later,” he said.
Yesterday, hundreds of junior doctors and medical officers at several public hospitals nationwide staged a walkout to express dissatisfaction with the government’s recent announcement of improved benefits and contract extensions.
Amid heavy police presence at the hospitals to maintain order and the threat of potential disciplinary action by their Ministry of Health superiors, most of the protests lasted several minutes before dispersing peacefully.
It was reported that over 23,000 contract doctors in government service who graduated since December 2016 have not been automatically absorbed permanently like their predecessors were in the past.
