Health Ministry to form task force to investigate houseman's death

SHAH ALAM - The Health Ministry will set up an independent task force to investigate the death of a houseman attached to the Penang Hospital (HPP).

Its minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the task force will also look into the bully culture at the hospital as claimed by certain groups.

"I have received the initial report involving the death of a graduate medical officer from the Penang Health Department.

"The police has also started their probe on this,” he said in a Twitter post today.

Meanwhile, health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a tweet said bullying culture was wrong and cannot be tolerated anywhere, especially in hospitals.

"We are waiting for the police investigation to conclude and the post-mortem report including the chemistry results," he wrote.

On Tuesday, a news portal reported that a junior doctor from HPP was found dead believed to have fallen from a building.

The case was being investigated as sudden death.

However, police did not rule out reclassifying the case if new evidence was found in the investigation.

In December 2020, a trainee doctor at the HPP was also found dead at home in Bukit Jambul, Penang, believed to have committed suicide.