Reported Cases of Harassment or Abuse of Public Healthcare Workers

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health for each year in the past five years, of the number of cases of harassment or abuse of public healthcare workers that are reported to the Police, how many of the alleged abusers are (i) patients, (ii) patients' family members, (iii) non-family acquittances of patients and (iv) colleagues.

The number of cases of harassment and abuse of public healthcare workers that were reported to the Police, under section 6 of the Protection from Harassment Act, rose from 40 in 2018 to 99 in 2022.

Based on a recent survey of healthcare workers, about seven in 10 incidents of abuse or harassment, witnessed or experienced by healthcare workers, were from patients and their caregivers.