Group calls upon authorities to address long working hours of housemen, trainee doctors
KUCHING: The Sarawak Patriot Association (SPA) is calling upon the relevant authorities to address the alleged long working hours of housemen or trainee medical doctors in the country.
SPA chairman Datuk Dr Lau Pang Heng said they had received phone calls from many concerned parents of housemen, telling them that their children had to work 12 to 16 hours daily in hospitals (from 6am to 10pm).
He claimed that many housemen had only one meal a day and there was a case of a houseman shedding 8kg during the first month of orientation.
The reasons given by the authorities were that they did not have enough medical officers to go around and the employment of contract medical officers risked non-renewal.
“There were cases where contract medical officers’ employment had been renewed but their salaries were still equivalent to housemen’s salaries,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
Lau said SPA had also learned that contract medical officers were the ones who treated Covid-19 patients during the height of the pandemic.
Although they received allowances, the feedback was that life was stressful and they were exhausted, particularly with work pressure from senior members of the medical team, he added.
“It is learned that 30 per cent of housemen quit their training due to tremendous work pressure and long working hours.
“After they quit the housemenship, many are employed as representatives of pharmaceutical and bio-medical companies,” he said.
Lau claimed that parents would have to spend a minimum of RM300,000 to send their children to study medicine in local universities, and about RM2 million if they studied overseas, hoping that on graduation they would receive good income and enjoy a good life.
“On behalf of the housemen’s parents, we are asking the authorities to address these issues promptly,” he said.
He said if the problem was not solved in the soonest time possible, many would be wondering if the authorities were discouraging students to go for a medical degree.
“Or, can we afford to have graduating medical students not returning home to serve their country?” he argued.
SPA secretary David Hii and a member Capt (Rtd) Dr Kang KY were also present at the press conference.