FAMILIES are dumping elderly relatives in hospitals and nursing homes under false names and addresses so they cannot be sent home after treatment, doctors say.
While some are abandoned permanently, others are being admitted to hospital by relatives who need someone to look after their parents or grandparents while they go on holiday.
Dr Chu Kin-wah, president of the Public Doctors' Association, said the situation is worst around Christmas and New Year.
'In my experience it's common for relatives to admit family members to hospitals around long holidays,' said Dr Chu, who works at the Queen Mary Hospital. 'These relatives may be planning a long trip abroad, so they find an excuse to dump their relatives in the hospitals.
'Some relatives are deliberately giving a wrong telephone number,' he added. He had no idea how severe the problem was.
'In one case, a patient was brought to the hospital by relatives who said he had a problem. Normally, our staff find out all the telephone numbers and addresses of relatives. In this case, when we phoned up, the number and address were completely wrong, so the patient couldn't go home.
'In another, a patient was taken to hospital and two to three days later we called the patient's relatives for more information - and found they had left Hong Kong for a trip,' he added.