Three months ago, a patient threatened to strip Ms Marisol Zabellero Villabrille, a healthcare assistant at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
She had accompanied him into the toilet as intensive care unit patients are not allowed to use the washroom by themselves. But he was uncomfortable with her presence and grew increasingly agitated.
After the patient’s threat was issued, a colleague nearby intervened on her behalf and “scolded” the patient, and hospital security arrived and de-escalated the situation by taking the patient back to his bed.
“I was so shocked,” said Ms Villabrille. “I really didn’t expect him to say those words to me.”
A 2022 survey conducted by the Ministry of Health found that only one in four healthcare workers who experienced abuse in the 12 months preceding the survey reported the incidents.
On March 13, the Tripartite Workgroup for the Prevention of Abuse and Harassment of Healthcare Workers reported that 39 per cent of the more than 3,000 healthcare workers it surveyed did not consider sexual requests and remarks as abuse or harassment.
On Dec 13, the workgroup launched a framework to protect healthcare workers from abuse. The framework sets out a common definition of abuse and harassment and standardised protocols to respond to incidents of abuse from patients or their families.
Dr Gillian Lim, chief of central region at the Institute of Mental Health, said the framework is a good first step in highlighting abuse and harassment of healthcare workers.
“We’re also humans. We sacrifice our sleep, our meals, our personal lives, our holidays, our mental health to try to make the system work,” she said, calling for respect for healthcare workers.
The Straits Times
