Facebook user Channey Lim shared her first-hand experience with MOH officers when she witnessed how a group of MOH enforcement officers who tried using their authority to gain patients confidential information.
Ms Lim was one of the patients at the clinic who witnessed the whole incident between the staff of the clinic and the MOH officers.
According to Ms Lim’s post, the enforcement officers questioned all the patients in the clinic in an extremely loud and ruder many asking them whether they have essential purposes to be at the clinic.
When the enforcement officers question the clinic staff, they pointed out that the patient’s information is considered private and confidential but the MOH officers claimed that they have the authority to obtain such information.
The clinic staff requested the officers to wait outside the clinic, but instead, the officers were “throwing around” their authority and demanding statements from the clinic staff.
The staff were unsure of what the officers were saying and they were informed to google it. An enforcement officer then insulted the clinic staff by stating that they were “working blindly” and commenting that the staff were incompetent for not know the “basics”.
She described the whole situation as “unsightly”, adding that a “string of sarcastic remarks was thrown back and forth” between them.
Eventually, the staff of the clinic told the enforcement officers that she would need to check with the management for the officers’ request, but one of the officers replied, “I am from the MOH, I will tell you what to do! You don’t need to check with your boss.”
“Even when asked to wait for their boss to come out, this guy just would not let it go,” Ms Lim added.
She noted that one of the patients probably felt that the clinic staff were “being attacked” by the officers and decided to intervene. One of the officers, however, said that the patient is in no position to intervene, adding that he would “talk to him later”.
“Are MOH enforcing officers allowed to crack the whip during such situations? Is it a norm for them to speak so rudely and condescendingly in every clinic/practice they visit? Creating hoo-has and loud commotions?” she asked.
Ms Lim remarked, “I personally feel, authority is not to be abused. Even as mere humans, no one should be spoken to like that.”
Source: Channey Lim Facebook Page
