A lady wearing a skirt over her knee was denied entry to a hospital’s emergency section to visit her father, and the incident has since gone viral, with the blame now falling on the security officers.
Eliza tweeted on March 16 that she went to the Selayang Hospital Issue Department to see her father, who had been transported there for an unclear medical emergency, but she was denied entry because she was “dressed incorrectly.”
“Some people came in with shorter shorts. But I was called out “Amoi kenapa pakai skirt, cepatlah amoi… The s**t is that? This is an emergency! AN EMERGENCY. Did you think I thought about what I need to wear when my father is in an emergency situation?.
“I cannot even brain the need to deny someone during emergency. What if he is dying, and this is the last time I get to see him?. Because I was (wearing a skirt) one inch above the knee?” she tweeted.
I have been denied entry to see my dad in the Emergency Ward, not cause of Covid, noooo friends, not cause its not allowed (cause one person is allowed at a time) but BECAUSE I WAS DEEMED DRESSED INAPPROPRIATE. I wore a shift shapeless with sleeves AND JUST ABOVE THE KNEE…. pic.twitter.com/MIwRyWJvJ1
— Eliza Nathaniel (@elizanathaniel) March 16, 2022
The event prompted Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah to respond on Twitter, stating that hospital employees had been instructed to use “proper communication” while dealing with patients and their next-of-kin.
As a consequence, a Selayang Hospital (a facility in Kuala Lumpur) security guard was chastised for preventing the woman from visiting her father at the hospital.
“The Selayang Hospital’s Security Department has taken action to improve its service by reprimanding the security personnel, that she has to adopt appropriate communication procedures when dealing with patients and next of kin so that such incident will not happen again,” the Health DG tweeted.
His response came after a series of tweets by the woman who goes by the handle @elizanathaniel were brought to the Health Ministry’s attention by a non-government organisation.
Other Incidents
In 2015, Malaysia saw a series of dress code rulings at government offices that sparked outrage across the country.
The dress code instructed women to wear sarongs to cover their legs when entering government buildings, despite dress standards requiring them to wear skirts below their knees.
An example of aggressive enforcement of clothing regulations at government offices is an incident at the Gombak Road Transport Department office, when a guard forced a woman to wear a sarong.
Another lady was advised to cover her legs before being admitted to Sungai Buloh Hospital on June 16. She was not provided a sarong to wear and had to cover herself in a borrowed towel.
A week later, two ladies were denied entry to the Selangor government building in Shah Alam because they were wearing skirts.
But since then, some offices have removed such rulings, apparently while several public service buildings are still enforcing the dress code rulings.
The post In Malaysia, woman was not allowed in A&E because her skirt was too short appeared first on The Independent News.