PETALING JAYA: Dr Ch’ng Hooi Ping was meant to celebrate the achievement of her dream career as a specialist alongside her family and colleagues. Instead, they mourned her loss.
The 31-year-old doctor was found dead in her car in the parking lot of the hospital she worked at due to fluid in the lungs.
Her sister believes that her untimely death was caused by overwork and exhaustion due to inadequate rest.
After her death, her 35-year-old sister, Dr K, who was serving as a medical officer in another government hospital in Penang, resigned immediately.
Speaking to The Star, Dr K (name changed) said her sister was a medical officer at the paediatric department of a government hospital in Penang and did not have a history of pre-existing medical conditions.
Describing the fateful events on June 27, Dr K said she received a call from her sister’s colleague who asked if Dr Ch’ng was ill at home as she had not turned up to work and was uncontactable.
Dr K said after checking with her parents, she found that her sister had left for work at around 6.30am in her work attire.
“We kept looking for her, and I told her colleague something was not right and asked her to look for her in the hospital vicinity.
“At 11am, they found her unconscious at the carpark. They took her to the Emergency Department and tried to resuscitate her.
“Retrospectively, they found that she arrived at the hospital at 7.44am,” she said.
“This was on a Thursday. My mother said she was on post-call on Tuesday, and on Wednesday she looked very tired,” she said, adding that her sister used to clock out at night.
The post-mortem report found that there was no foul play, and acute pulmonary edema was identified as the cause of death.
“As far as we knew, she had no history of illness,” she said, adding there were no signs of mental health problems or bullying.
She said Dr Ch’ng received the results for her final paper for specialist training a week before her death and was due to complete her remaining rotation at another hospital in Penang.
In fact, Dr Ch’ng who had served in the same hospital for six years since her housemanship days, had prepared gifts and a cake for her colleagues before her farewell.
“The following week she was supposed to transfer to another hospital in the state,” she said.
“Our on-call system is such that we have to come in to work at 8am in the morning and we can only go back the next day. Usually post-call is until 12pm, but we usually don’t go back at 12pm. If you calculate it, the working hours typically extend up to 30 hours,” she said.
“She has been putting in the long hours for several years. I have experienced it myself, and I couldn’t take it too. I don’t think anyone can take it (in the long term),” she said.
Dr K who served in public healthcare for 10 years, said she was already experiencing burnout and was on the brink of quitting her job.
Her sister’s death, she said, was the final straw and she called it quits. Dr K is now freelancing and doing locum.
Their parents have come to terms with her sister’s death and accepted her fate. The family is also in the process of claiming compensation payment from the hospital.
Dr K is now appealing to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad to review the long working hours, especially the 30-hour on-call duty that is taking a toll on the well-being of doctors.
Just like Dr K, others in the medical fraternity have also been urging the government to review this punishing 30-hour shift.
“My intention is to help the doctors in the Health Ministry. I think most of them are burnt out and tired.
“We have been grappling with the shortage of housemen and medical officers.
“Some medical officers are doing both the roles of housemen and medical officers. It is too tiring,” she said.
“Some of my friends are also depressed due to the long working hours and heavy workload,” she added.
She said better policies are needed to address the issue of long working hours and overwork among doctors before more lives are lost.
