WE AGREE that any abuse of health-care workers, whether verbal or physical, should not be tolerated ("Protect health-care workers from abuse" by Dr Zhang Weisheng, last Thursday; and "Abuse of health-care workers on the rise", last Saturday).
Our public hospitals serve large numbers of patients daily and we are grateful that the vast majority are appreciative of the hard work and good care provided by our health-care workers.
Unfortunately, there are occasions when our health-care workers have to face abusive behaviour from the public.
Our public health-care institutions have in place policies to protect their staff from abuse.
Staff who face abuse can seek assistance from their supervisors, who will step in to manage the situation.
Our hospitals will also not hesitate to activate security or press charges against individuals who resort to physical abuse.
Our health-care workers should be treated with respect. They come to work every day with the mission to care for patients as if they were their own loved ones.
Care and understanding work both ways and we hope the public is able to honour that.
Bey Mui Leng (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications
Cecilia Pang (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications
Protect health-care workers from abuse
LAST Saturday afternoon, my fiancee, who is a staff nurse at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital's cardiac intensive care unit, told a patient's family member not to use his mobile phone within the ICU as it could interfere with the medical equipment.
Though she was polite throughout the encounter, she was subjected to a verbal tirade, including finger pointing, that was vicious enough to reduce her to tears.
Senior nursing staff were called in and, at the end of the incident, not only was there no apology from the family member, but my fiancee was also informed about his feedback and told to understand his situation.
This notion of "the customer is always right" is unacceptable.
I understand that a patient's family has to endure extreme stress and anxiety, but it does not justify verbal abuse of health-care staff.
Health-care workers have the patients' best interests at heart, and this may occasionally be at odds with what is seen as "good" customer service.
As a doctor who has worked in both hospital and primary care settings, I have found that incidents of verbal abuse are not uncommon.
This is most often directed at nursing and auxiliary staff, although doctors are also not spared.
Abusive individuals are usually coaxed rather than warned, thus perpetuating the impression that they can get their way through such deplorable behaviour.
Firmer action needs to be taken against them.
It is essential for public health-care institutions to show unwavering support to all staff who have been verbally abused.
Can the hospital and the Ministry of Health elaborate on what concrete measures are in place to protect staff from abuse? What forms of redress are available to them?
Public health-care staff should not have to suffer in silence.
Zhang Weisheng (Dr)
ST Forum, 4 Apr 2013
Abuse of health-care workers on the rise
Nurses bear brunt of ugly behaviour from patients and their families
By Salma Khalik, The Straits Times, 6 Apr 2013
SEVERAL times a day, every day, a health-care worker at a public hospital here is scolded, abused with vulgarities, or even physically threatened by a patient, his family or friends.
Although hospitals do not track every incident, only the more uncontrolled and violent ones, they told The Straits Times they are seeing more cases of abuse.
"SGH (Singapore General Hospital) has almost one million patient encounters a year," said Ms Isabel Yong, who is in charge of service quality at the hospital. "And we have seen an increasing trend in the number of demanding or abusive patients or next of kin."
Although other health-care staff experience their share of demanding patients, nurses often bear the brunt of ugly behaviour.
National University Hospital (NUH) staff nurse Norazlina Hassan said that when patients or their families use vulgarities and rude gestures, it could reduce a nurse to tears and affect her work for the rest of the shift.
Staff at hospitals The Straits Times spoke to related various incidents of patients and visitors getting abusive.
And sometimes it does not take much to set them off.
Patients who ask to see a doctor sometimes get impatient and vent their anger on the nurses.
Some get upset over not getting the food they want. Others treat nurses as their maids.
Visitors, meanwhile, vent their frustrations when told visiting hours are over, or when they feel their relatives are not getting treated as well as they should be.
There have also been cases of hospital and polyclinic staff being slapped or punched.
Most hospitals train their staff on how to deal with such people. They also learn from experience.
NUH staff nurse Jonelyn Tanalgo said that when she thinks a patient will be aggressive, she would get a colleague to accompany her. They are less likely to get violent when there is more than one person around, she explained.
A spokesman for Changi General Hospital said it has even installed "panic buttons" at its work stations so staff can call for security should they have problems.
When all else fails, or when the behaviour gets violent or too abusive, police reports are made.
Some of the more serious cases end up in court, where people have been fined and even jailed for such abuse. An NUH spokesman said a patient's mother slapped a female member of staff whom she thought was flirting with her husband when, in fact, she was merely updating on his child's illness. The woman was taken to court and found guilty.
But often, the staff involved do not want to escalate the matter.
Ms Norazlina takes it all in her stride because, she said, they generally get more compliments than complaints.
A Health Ministry spokesman said it does not condone abusive behaviour towards health-care workers. She said: "While it is understandable that patients and their families may face stress and anxiety, our health-care staff are doing their best to provide the best care possible, and should be treated with respect."
Tempers and unreasonable demands
Singapore General Hospital
- A patient wanted bananas every day. When he did not get them, he turned abusive and threatened to storm the hospital kitchens.
- Unhappy with a 10-minute wait at the laboratory, another patient demanded a written apology. When this was given, he was not happy with the wording and wanted another apology.
National University Hospital
- A patient who was on a therapeutic diet insisted on having mutton rendang. When he did not get his way, he swept the entire tray of food off the table. He then went to the hospital's foodcourt to buy his own meal.
- Staff nurse Jonelyn Tanalgo recalled being verbally abused by a patient, who was supposed to be undergoing a procedure ordered by the doctor but wanted to leave to smoke. When she told him that the hospital was a smoke-free zone, matters got worse.
Changi General Hospital
- Some patients and their visitors treat nurses like maids, asking them to pick up tissue paper they had thrown on the floor, a spokesman said. They would also order nurses to pick up delivery food such as pizzas, and become upset when they get "no" for an answer.
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital
- A patient had her blouse buttoned up wrongly. Her son was so furious that he not only scolded the nurses in abusive language but also wrote in to complain.
- A family of 10 arrived after visiting hours, rang the bell incessantly and banged on the doors till they were admitted. Meanwhile, their children ran around the ward helping themselves to masks and gloves and opening the cupboards of other patients - leading to complaints.