Business as usual at George Town public hospitals on 'Black Monday'

GEORGE TOWN: Operations at government hospitals here appeared to be going smoothly on what was supposed to be a "Black Monday" caused by a contract doctors' strike.

Some 10,000 contract doctors were expected to join the strike for three days beginning on Monday (April 3).

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Checks on the social media profiles of several contractor doctors also found that they did not change their profile pictures to black in support of the call to strike.

Several hospitals and clinics visited were operating as usual with no visible disruption of services.

In 2021, a similar campaign called Code Black was conducted by the Malaysian Medical Association’s Section Concerning House Officers, Medical Officers and Specialists (Schomos) as a protest against what was seen as an unfair contract medical officer system.

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However, this was solely a social media campaign and did not involve any demonstrations.

It ran from July 1 and culminated in a “Black Monday” on July 12 where the group requested supporters to change their personal profile pictures, company or institution logos to black or monochrome for the first 12 days of the campaign.

Doctors were told to work as usual, wearing black.