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Stop hospital bullying: Sen. Raffy Tulfo airs his deep concern over reports of bullying in hospitals which affects clerks, interns, resident nurses and other medical professionals. During a public inquiry conducted by the Committee on Health and Demography Tuesday, March 12, 2024, Tulfo said health professionals are asked to run errands, clean toilets and condos, drive their seniors home and are verbally abused and humiliated in front of people and patients. Tulfo said he remembered an incident involving the rape of a University of Sto. Tomas intern by a senior resident after a drinking bout and learned that two residents in a popular public hospital in Quezon City and another resident in a Manila hospital committed suicide due to stress and depression. “This toxic practice might have stemmed from a tradition that senior residents or consultants intended to teach discipline, hard work and grit to the neophyte doctors. Unfortunately, this tradition has gone out of hand and has gone beyond medical training. The duties being assigned are no longer medical related and beyond the bounds of labor law and are violations of the code of ethics of medical practitioners, and frankly, it is no longer healthy. We have to protect our medical frontliners by helping them work in a healthy environment,” Tulfo said. According to the senator, the hospital hierarchy must take action on the matter starting with the hospital administrator who must lay down policies where bullying is not to be tolerated. He said the Department of Health must also ensure that all hospitals have fix guidelines in the implementation of residency training and that it must continue to supervise both public and private hospitals to ensure that those running the hospitals are capable of maintaining a healthy, efficient and professional workplace for the doctors. (Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB)