Physical, verbal abuse new threat for KKM staff

KLANG: Physical and verbal abuse against Health Ministry ( KKM) employees with some incidents being viralised on the social media has been seen as a serious threat to hospital staff.

Health director- general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said apart from physical injuries, the staff could also suffer mental and emotional stress which would affect their productivity in delivering the best service to the people.

He said even though the twoyear retrospective survey which began in 2013 at 11 specialist hospitals revealed that only 44 cases of such abuse were reported, the ministry believed there were many more cases not reported by KKM employees.

“The threat which came from patients and their families is a real challenge which should be addressed because they were not only committing physical and verbal abuse, but also recording and uploading (their dissatisfaction) onto social media to condemn our staff,” he told the media here yesterday.

Earlier, Dr Noor Hisham launched the Guidelines to Prevent and Handle Violence Against KKM Staff in conjunction with the national celebration of the World Occupational Safety and Health Day at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital ( HTAR) in Klang here.

Dr Noor Hisham added that KKM employees could use the guidelines in taking the necessary action in the event of abuse which went viral on social media.

“The ministry will continue to work closely with the police and the Communications and Multimedia Ministry to investigate allegations and threats of physical violence against our staff on social media.

“We will also collect evidence to counter the the allegations,” he said. — Bernama