Hospital director concedes faux pas in barring bare-kneed woman
KUALA LUMPUR: The Sungai Buloh Hospital management cannot bar visitors from entering its premise even if they are deemed to dress indecently as the dress code is only a guideline hospital director Dr Khalid Ibrahim said yesterday.
Dr Khalid was responding to an allegation made by a woman on Facebook that she was forbidden from entering the Sungai Buloh Hospital here recently because she was dressed in shorts.
Dr Khalid said the dress code was only a guideline meant to “encourage” visitors to “dress decently” but said it cannot bar them from entering the premise even if they did not observe it.
“We don’t have a policy but we do encourage them to dress decently.
“But if they don’t we cannot stop people from entering,” Dr Khalid told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
He added that the incident was likely a result of “miscommunication” between the security personnel and the hospital management.
“It was the guards. I think there was a miscommunication”.
In a third incident at public institutions here, a woman has come forward alleging that she was forbidden from entering the Sungai Buloh Hospital here recently because she was dressed in shorts. In her Facebook post accessible to the public that is being shared on social media, the woman who goes by the moniker “Nisha Daddygal” said she was then forced to borrow a towel to cover up her legs before she was allowed to visit her father who had been warded there.
She added that the hospital security personnel had told her that the noshorts policy came directly from the Ministry of Health.
Dr Khalid, however, denied that the dress code policy came from the MoH.
“As I said we only encourage (them to dress decently),” he added.
The incident took place on June 16, according to her Facebook posting.
In the pictures that accompanied her posting, the woman was seen wearing a loose T-shirt and a pair of black shorts.
She also posted a picture of herself wearing a yellow towel at the entrance to the hospital, where a signboard depicted the hospital’s dress code for visitors. Two men dressed in the security guard’s uniform are seen in the background.